A CHOIRMASTER is to accuse the Church of England of breaching his human rights by unfairly dismissing him for living in sin.

Stephen Hartley, from York, is taking the Church to an Employment Tribunal next month in what could be a human rights test case - after losing his part-time job as choirmaster and organist at St James's Church, Wetherby.

The 62-year-old will claim he was forced to resign because he lived out of wedlock with his partner, Joyce, whom he has been with for six years.

Solicitor Lydia Thomson, of the Employment Law Practice in York, who will represent him at the tribunal, said: "He has lost his job because he was living with a woman he wasn't married to. And it seems to me that there's an infringement of his right to have his private life respected.

"One of the rights in the Human Rights Convention is respect for the privacy of family life so we would be asking whether his refusing to marry was an appropriate reason for dismissing him."

Mr Hartley says he is not married to Joyce because she is an atheist and would not want to get married in church, while he would not want to get married anywhere else.

In addition, the couple did not want to be rushed into marriage.

Mr Hartley has since found fill-in work elsewhere but said he feared his marital status could be a problem in the future.

He said: "I have my doubts about my acceptability in every parish. Inevitably there will be people who think I ought really to be getting married. I'm a potential cause of controversy so I'm fearful about my reception."

Meanwhile the Wetherby church's vicar, the Reverend Philip Evans, who is seeking alternative employment following the episode, says he hopes any new post will distance him from Wetherby.

Mr Evans went off sick for several months after receiving death threats and having to cope with parishioners' protests against Mr Hartley's departure.

He said he is now in excellent health but, because the church moves slowly finding new appointments, he is still in place in Wetherby but not taking services.

He said: "I'm still here and will be here for some time. I had messages over Christmas from two friends who had just got jobs after two and three years. I'm not even on the list of the clergy appointments advisor, who works at Church House in London, until March.

"When I do find something, I hope it won't be round here. We want to put some distance between ourselves and the unpleasantness we have encountered in Yorkshire."

Updated: 09:13 Thursday, February 01, 2001