The Sydney diocese questionnaire also asks about any involvement in the
occult, whether priests have been cruel to animals, their attitudes to
alcohol and any convictions for driving offences.

The use of internet chat rooms and ography comes under scrutiny in
the eight-page document approved by the diocese's professional standards
committee, a copy of which has been obtained by The Australian.

An additional 22 parishes - out of 63 in the diocese - have yet to submit a pledge or have pledged less than the diocese requested.
The total revenue deficit - including shortfalls stemming from other reasons - is more than $200,000 in a budget of about $1.1 million, said Bishop J. Michael Garrison.

The bishop cited a combination of economic difficulty within many parishes and a "significant amount of protest" over the approval of a gay bishop.

This is a serious indictment, and knowing several of the bishops involved I have asked myself why they did not attend and what would have been gained if they had. It seems to me that all of us who sincerely want to maintain "the greatest possible communion among us" must try to understand sympathetically their decision before criticizing it. And we must ask what more the HOB could have learned from them about their needs that has not already been made quite clear.

Nationally, donations to the Episcopal Church are down about $3 million, or 6 percent, since the confirmation of New Hampshire Bishop V. Gene Robinson, officials said.

Elsewhere in New York, dioceses reported none of the hardship being felt in Buffalo, where at least five parishes are withholding most or all of their financial pledges. An additional 22 parishes have not yet submitted pledges or have pledged less than the diocese had hoped for.