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	Church Sex List to Include Cheaters, Abusers IOL October 23, 2007 http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=2024&art_id=nw20071023095030341C765447 Sydney - Australia's Anglican Church has sparked controversy with a proposal for a sex offenders' register that lists clergy allegedly guilty of marital infidelity alongside those accused of child abuse. The church is considering the national register of sex offenders in response to a series of sex scandals involving clergy in recent years. But the conservative Sydney diocese has proposed including clergy and church workers who cheat on their spouses on the list. "We don't want to go snooping around in people's bedrooms," the professional standards director of the Sydney diocese, Philip Gerber, told the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper. "On the other hand, both the people in the church and presumably the community expect ministers will be faithful to their spouses." Gerber elaborated on public radio on Tuesday, saying the Anglican Church had high expectations of its clergy and workers. "A scriptural expectation that members of the clergy and church workers lead moral lives - it's part and parcel of that," he said. "It's a higher expectation, perhaps, than you have of an ordinary member of the community and so we expect our ministers to be above reproach in that area." Gerber said the list would only be available to senior members of the church such as bishops and would differentiate between types of allegations, such as rumours and those supported by written statements. But Muriel Porter, a lay member of the synod, said she was concerned unsubstantiated allegations of extra-marital affairs could be listed alongside child sexual abuse. Porter said the church must deal with serious issues of sexual abuse. "But we're getting to the point where people, almost for winking at somebody, could end up being on a register and I think that's quite serious," she told ABC radio. Church leaders are expected to discuss the proposed register at an Anglican synod being held in Canberra this week and it could be operating by March next year if approved.
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