I know I'm a guest and I hope you won't think I'm trolling - I certainly don't intend to. I've just got this dilemma and I'd like the advice and thoughts of this community.

I am involved in an organisation that promotes traditional music. We have existed for a long time and most of the chief figures in it have been there almost as long. For lots of perfectly understandable historical and sociological reasons most of our members in this particular area of the world are members of the Roman Catholic church.

There have historically been strong links between the church and our organisation - we've relied heavily on church facilities, many clergy have contributed greatly to our work and so on. There are other parts of the world this is less true and our membership is more diverse in those areas. Even in areas where it is still the case many members question the links between our organisation and the church, especially in the light of recent revelations about child abuse.

Now, I'm a Catholic myself and I still practice (I'm still no damn good at it) but our organisation has a constitution and it states clearly that we are non-denominational and non-political. In my view, that is how it should be and must be if our organisation is to have a future as well as a past. However, the last couple of meetings that I went to where anyone pointed this out, they got howled down in no uncertain terms. One of them was me.

Here's the crunch: I'm now involved in organising our annual competition for young musicians. This feeds into a larger, world-wide competition and if it does not happen, our kids can't progress to the larger event. I've found a terrific venue with a supportive and enthusiastic management. If it comes off it will be brilliant.

My collegues in my own branch and most of the organisation in our part of the world insist on incorporating a Mass into the event. I don't want to stop anyone practising their faith but I just don't believe that we are in business to promote religious events that by their nature exclude non-members of that particular church.

We are also going to have to raise money through sponsorships as well as our awn activities to pay for the event and subsidise people's participation. If we approach outside bodies for money on the basis of our constitution (remember, the one that says we're non-denominational) and then have a Mass at the event I'm concerned that we could be accused of taking money under false pretences.

I also feel personally that by having a Mass we are making a statement to the effect that our organisation is a Catholic organisation for Catholics- and it isn't. However, I'm up against 50 years of emigrant conservatism on this one.

We have a national meeting due soon at which I have to present information on the site and our plans for the event. I don't want to have a Mass as part of the event and if I'm overruled It's going to be very difficult to continue in my present role. On the other hand, I want this event to happen and I don't want to quit.

I've already suggested that we schedule the event so that people can go to church on Sunday but nothing doing. Of course, 'being able' to go to Mass isn't what it's about for these people. They want to use our organisation and our music as a vehicle for their own beliefs and I'm afraid that they're going to kill our organisation off, along with the work it does, in the process. If I had any sense I'd walk away from it but like I said, I don't want to do that.