ACROSS America, churches such as All Saints Episcopal, in the wooded hinterlands of Boston, now find themselves on the front line of the threatened schism in Anglicanism.

Since the US Episcopal Church chose a gay man to become the Bishop of New Hampshire, a growing number of worshippers have abandoned their parishes in that diocese and started driving across the state line to attend Sunday services at this modest brick church in Massachusetts.

But there has been a flow in the other direction as well, as some longtime members have left this conservative parish to seek a church that is more receptive to homosexuality.

Rev William Murdoch, the rector of All Saints, said: “Over the last three weeks, there have been 40 to 50 people from New Hampshire. At the same time, to be fair, we have lost four or five families.”

After Gene Robinson’s consecration on Sunday night, the future of dissenting parishes within the Episcopal Church, the US branch of Anglicanism, is clouded by uncertainty. Conservatives in the American Anglican Council speak of an eventual “realignment” of dissident parishes into a network of orthodox Anglican churches.

But in the small hamlet of West Newbury, near the last stop on the commuter railway out of Boston, the realignment of the American Church is already under way as Episcopalians vote with their feet.

Nancy Hansford, a registered nurse, worshipped with her husband and four children until recently at St John’s Episcopal Church in Portsmouth, Massachusetts. But when the parish backed the appointment of an openly gay man as the diocese’s bishop, she felt it had betrayed the faith.

“When this all came about, we were pretty much rocked. We had some meetings with people. We tried to discuss and pray about it. But it was not working out for us,” she said. “We felt we were in a place that was not following scriptural teachings any more.

“Our 11-year-old was sitting in a lot of services where homosexuality was openly discussed. We do not shy away from teaching him things, but he is a little on the young end to have to know all the details of people’s lifestyles.” Joel Hansford, a doctor, met Mr Murdoch at a meeting of church conservatives and his family decided to change to his church. Mrs Hansford said: “When we found other churches like All Saints, we felt we were coming home, because people were aware of our situation and they were praying for us. We felt like lost sheep.

“Moving to a new parish further from home has been a wrenching change in some respects. The children still do not understand why they no longer see their friends at St John’s. But there has been no acrimony.

“We have not had any bitterness. I have been amazed,” Mrs Hansford said. “When my husband was hanging tough at our old church, people’s mouths dropped because he was the only one who stood up. But afterwards, people who were for the consecration came up and hugged us. Then other people came up and said, ‘Thank you for saying what you did because we were too afraid to say it’.”

Mr Murdoch, who leads a thriving parish, proudly describes All Saints as evangelical, charismatic and Anglo-Catholic and criticises the Episcopal Church leadership for capitulating to contemporary American culture at the cost of traditional Anglican teaching. But he says the upheaval is causing “heartbreak” among parishioners on both sides of the theological divide.

“People go to a church for decades. They have families that are members of a parish for generations. The values of that parish shape their lives,” he said.

“All of a sudden, the commitments and lifestyle have changed without them being listened to. It’s out of this that the sense of brokenheartedness comes.”

All Saints now faces an uncertain future as it decides how to handle its relationship with the national Episcopal Church, although it insists that it will remain within the Anglican communion. Already, parishioners are complaining about any collection money going to the national Church.

The parish is still in good standing with the bishops of Massachusetts, who voted for Bishop Robinson’s ordination. But the church premises and part of the rector’s home are owned by the diocese and could be lost if the parish splits from the national Church.

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