The next time you visit Westminster Abbey and reflect that it was here that the funeral of Princess Diana took place, spare a thought for a man who, until recently, was unknown outside church circles but is now involved in a mysterious ecclesiastical scandal.
In March Dr Martin Neary, the former organist at Westminster Abbey, and his wife, Penny, who was employed as the choir's concert secretary, were summoned to the abbey's private Jerusalem Chamber by the Dean of the abbey, the Very Rev Wesley Carr, where they were told they faced dismissal.
Such was Dr Neary's chagrin at the behaviour of the newly appointed, radical dean that he and his wife consulted the Prime Minister's wife, Ms Cherie Booth QC, a specialist in employment law, about their grounds for redress. She advised the Nearys to seek an injunction, but instead the dean halted the proceedings and Dr Neary and his wife were dismissed from their posts in April.
Their dismissal marked the beginning of an intense period of lobbying on their behalf by a number of high-profile supporters, including the former prime minister, Sir Edward Heath, and the former Tory cabinet minister, Mr John Gummer, who met Dr Neary at Cambridge University more than 30 years ago.
The allegation against Dr Neary and his wife centres on the existence of a little company called Neary Music Ltd which, the abbey's auditors say, has "retained money for abbey events that did not belong to it". While Dr Neary and his wife have not commented on the allegations because of a legal agreement not to talk to the press until an appeal is heard, the staging of the appeal according to rules set down after Henry VIII's dissolution of the monasteries has church circles in a spin.
Indeed, the whole process had become so secretive that until last week the location of the appeal hearing was not revealed until a few hours beforehand.
When Dr Neary and his wife walked purposefully along Down ing Street last week to meet the members of the Council Chamber of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, they were about to take part in a process dating back to 1560. When Queen Elizabeth I granted a charter establishing the abbey's constitution, she stipulated that the dean, the chapter and the organist would answer in all matters to her as Visitor to the abbey, instead of the Pope, just as her father, Henry VIII, had done.
The abbey became known as a "Royal Peculiar", and from then on the monarch was the arbiter of any disputes. This arcane rule was used again when Dr Neary fell out with the dean of the abbey over Neary Music Ltd and the money that allegedly did not belong in the account. Of course, the present-day Queen Elizabeth could not oversee an appeal against Dr Neary's dismissal; and so, on her behalf, the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine, appointed the retired law lord, Lord Jauncey of Tulli chettle, to hear the case.
Over the next few weeks, Lord Jauncey will examine written evidence alleging that Neary Music Ltd received fees for the choir's recordings, tours and broadcasts undertaken outside the abbey. The limited company, which was born out of the Neary Music Account, was created to provide a safeguard for the Nearys if a promoter failed to pay for an engagement in the event that it was cancelled.
Observers have pointed out that the company was by no means a secret and that there was a note in the Song School vestry asking for VAT invoices to be made out to Neary Music Ltd. The amount of money left in the company's account is thought to be small change.
The editor of the Church Times, Mr Paul Handley, said this week that the whole episode had left everyone in church circles "rather bemused". At such a high level there are expectations that in a Christian organisation disputes should be sorted out internally. The whole matter could be resolved within the next few weeks, at a cost of about £250,000 to Dr Neary and his supporters, but it is thought highly unlikely that the Nearys will be reinstated in their posts. According to Mr Handley, Dr Neary will no doubt wish to see his name cleared, just as the dean will want to make the allegations stick, but it seems that the likeliest outcome will be some form of financial compensation for the Nearys.
For some, the atmosphere at the abbey has become so unhappy that they fear for the future. The parents of some of the choirboys have mounted a campaign in defence of Dr Neary and his wife, but for the time being their fate lies in the hands of Lord Jauncey. For Dr Neary, who was made a lieutenant of the Royal Victorian Order in recognition of his musical arrangement at Princess Diana's funeral, these are trying days indeed.