ROBERT TONG, one of two Australians on the new panel of reference to consider disputes about alternative episcopal oversight in the Anglican Communion ( News, 10 June), comes from the heartland of Sydney Anglicanism.

Mr Tong, a solicitor, who is a former Australian lay representative on the Anglican Consultative Council, plays a leading part in diocesan politics as chairman of the Anglican Church League in Sydney. The League, formed in 1909 by Sydney clerics as a "centre unity" Evangelical party, swiftly developed into a conservative lobby group. Since the 1930s, it has exercised powerful influence in the Sydney diocesan synod.

Mr Tong co-wrote the Sydney response to the Windsor report. He is a long-term friend of the Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen, and the son-in-law of a former Archbishop, the Rt Revd Sir Marcus Loane.