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ATTLEBORO - With tears, prayers, and resignation, the Rev. Lance Giuffrida of All Saints Church on Sunday led his congregation through its last service before being evicted by Episcopal authorities for "abandonment," and into an uncertain future as an Anglican parish under an African bishop.

"I never meant for us to be at this time or place," Giuffrida told those gathered to worship at the North Main Street building which has been All Saints' home since 1927. "I didn't change. ... I preached the same thing for 30 years. I didn't move. I just stood."

Over the course of an emotional three-hour service that was at times mournful and others defiant, Giuffrida and his parishioners said they regretted losing their parish home but placed their future and their trust in God and Christ.

"It is for this faith and this witness that we are being evicted," Giuffrida said in his sermon. "The question is, who will stand for that faith?"

As an answer, the entire congregation rose, clapped and cheered. Sunday's 9 a.m. service was the culmination of a dramatic chain of events that began last fall when the parish leadership voted to secede from the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, to join the six-year-old Anglican Mission in America, an orthodox group under the authority of the Anglican Church of Rwanda.

Earlier this month the head of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts, Bishop Thomas Shaw, sent a letter ordering All Saints' leadership to vacate the church's North Main Street property by Jan. 31. A recent statement by the head of the U.S. church, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, had declared that individuals have the right to leave the Episcopal Church but congregations do not, and properties belong to dioceses for continual use as Episcopal parishes.

In recent years the 77 million-member global Anglican church has been rocked by a series of doctrinal disputes, with battles over homosexuality garnering the most headlines. But many say it is fundamental theological matters, such as the necessity of accepting Christ to achieve salvation, that have most divided Anglicanism's liberal and orthodox wings.

Now some American parishes are voting to leave the Episcopal Church and instead align themselves with conservative African bishops. Earlier this month several wealthy Virginia congregations did so, including the historic Falls Church, where centuries ago George Washington was a warden.

At All Saints, Giuffrida's traditionalism has been applauded by like-minded parishioners who supported his move to disassociate from the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

From the pulpit Sunday morning, vestry member Jack Duffy described how he had joined All Saints' in 1980, left in 1996, and returned in 2003.

"I found a priest [in Giuffrida] who preached the truth of the Gospel," he said. "I found, like back in the '80s, a loving community. And I found a parish that was feeding the hungry."

"I feel a little sad about it, but the church is not the building, it's the people," said Gerda Baker of Attleboro, who has been worshiping at All Saints for nearly 70 years. "I'm for Father Lance all the way. He's the minister I've been waiting for all these years. ... Where he goes, I'm going."

Baker said Giuffrida had brought All Saints' "closer to the church of my childhood." But she admitted that two or three years ago she never would have guessed that a split was approaching.

Others have been drawn to All Saints by its strong orthodoxy. Carole Leonard commutes to the church from Easton, and called the final service "bittersweet." She joined the Episcopal Church as an adult in 1963, but over the years grew disenchanted with it. "The Church has changed," Leonard said. "I've held to the core beliefs."

Church officials said they are in negotiations to temporarily use facilities at Fisher College in Attleboro Falls starting next week, when services will be held at 7:30 a.m., 9 a.m., and 11 a.m. The latter two will be attended by the Archbishop of Tanzania.

Eventually All Saints Anglican, as the new parish is called, plans to build its own church - "our exiled home," as Giuffrida called it. "We'll buy a place that no one can take from us ever again," he said during the service to cries of "Amen!"

Not everyone has been pleased with the parish's strong orthodox stance. Although there were no visible dissenters at Sunday's service, diocesan officials say they have been contacted by disgruntled former members of All Saints who plan to return once another priest is assigned.

In a statement last week, the Right Rev. Gayle Elizabeth Harris, bishop suffragan for the Massachusetts diocese, called this "a difficult and painful time for all involved."

Harris said that worship will take place next Sunday morning at All Saints' North Main Street church with Rev. Gregory Jacobs, staff officer for urban ministry development, and the Right Rev. Barbara C. Harris, retired bishop suffragan, presiding.

But whether they go or stay, Sunday was the end of All Saints as its parishioners had known it for as long as most had attended.