Melbourne, Australia » An Anglican bishop in Australia's largest city has dressed down his clergy over their lack of sartorial style, saying they "dress worse than the lay people."

"Why are our clergy the worst-dressed people in church?" wrote Bishop Robert Forsyth of South Sydney on a Web site for the city's Anglicans.

Forsyth, writing in his regular column, "The Grumpy Bishop," said he is concerned the casual wear of some clergy sends a bad message to "unbelievers and outsiders."

In the column, which appeared in the middle of the Australian summer, when many Sydney residents head to the beaches, Forsyth says the idea of "Sunday best" does not exist any more. "We are now in a much more informal society," he wrote.

Still, he continued, "There is a way of dressing casual that looks really good ... [and] there is a way that looks positively daggy [slovenly] and scruffy."

The bishop speculated that the reason ministers are sartorially challenged is because many of them work from home.

"It's not a good look," he wrote, "especially for unbelievers and outsiders who may come along to church, particularly for special occasions, and find the minister, frankly, unimpressively dressed."