ATTLEBORO - Just two months after being forced to leave the parish property on North Main Street, the All Saints Anglican congregation that broke away from the national Episcopal Church is on its way to acquiring a permanent home.

The congregation is in the process of purchasing the former Hebron United Methodist Church on South Main Street near the Seekonk line that had been operated as the Hebron Village Outreach Center in recent years.

The Rev. Lance Giuffrida of All Saints Anglican said the congregation voted last weekend to buy the church, and is negotiating a purchase-and-sales agreement.

"We're very excited," he said. "This is a church that wants to come back as a church. We will be breathing new life into it."

If all goes well with the purchase, Giuffrida said he hopes his congregation can move into the church in early summer. The parish is now holding Sunday services in leased space at Fisher College on Elm Street in North Attleboro. The church needs work both inside and out, and Giuffrida said several members of the congregation are in the building trades and will provide much of the labor free so the parish will only have to pay for materials.

Although it needed refurbishing, Giuffrida said the church was appealing because of its solid post-and-beam construction and its beautiful sanctuary. The purchase price, he said, is $260,000, which the parish will mortgage.

The building has not been used as a church since 1998, when the dwindling congregation at the Hebronville church merged with Centenary United Methodist in downtown Attleboro. The vacated church was then used for various ministries under the supervision of a non-profit organization.

A few months ago, the board of trustees at Centenary put the church on the market after determining that the cost of repairing and maintaining it was too high. The former parsonage next door is also for sale, but only the church is being purchased by the Anglican parish.

Attleboro resident Don Hanson, president of the board of directors for the non-profit organization that oversees the Hebron center, said the hope was to sell the building to another congregation.

"We are all delighted about it," Hanson said of the sale.

The Working Person's Food Pantry and the senior citizen's food pantry now housed in the church are still operating there, Hanson said, but will have to relocate. The intent now, he said, is to buy another building to house the two pantries. They currently serve about 120 working families and about 40 seniors every week, and are also available to area veterans who have the need for free food.

"Our intention is to not miss a beat, to not miss a week," he said of the food programs.

Giuffrida said his congregation has been continuing its ministries since moving to Fisher College, and has been holding three Sunday morning services that are attended by a total of 160 to 200 people. The parish had to temporarily halt its food and clothing programs after leaving the North Main Street church, but hopes to resume those ministries at the new church, he said.

Bishop Thomas Shaw of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts ordered the congregation to leave the North Main Street property in January because of its decision to break from the Episcopal Church, the U.S. branch of the worldwide Anglican Communion, and to align with other conservatives in the Anglican Mission in America under the bishop of Rwanda. The North Main Street church now has a new priest assigned by the diocese, and remaining and returning members are reviving it as an Episcopal parish.

A number of conservative parishes nationwide have left the liberal national church over theological differences that center on the interpretation of scripture, especially on the issue of homosexuality. Those parishes, who believe in a literal reading of the Bible, represent a small, but growing, minority within the Episcopal Church.

In a meeting in Tanzania last month, leading conservative Anglican bishops demanded that U.S. bishops stop authorizing the blessing of same-sex unions and the consecration of openly gay bishops as they did four years ago, and that they allow other Anglican bishops to oversee breakaway conservative parishes. They set a deadline of Sept. 30 for a response.

Last week, the U.S. bishops rejected the demands and are now preparing a formal reply, which could set the stage for a worldwide Anglican showdown and eventual split between liberal and conservative provinces.

In a recent opinion piece published in The Boston Globe, Shaw said the Episcopal church wants to be part of the Anglican Communion, but not at the expense of its gay and lesbian members, nor at the expense of its autonomy and right to govern itself, a right it has held for centuries.

Besides ordering the All Saints Anglican parish out of the North Main Street property, Shaw began proceedings to depose Giuffrida, or strip him of his priesthood, saying he abandoned the Anglican Communion and violated his ordination vows by breaking with the Episcopal Church. A diocesan committee will meet on the issue in mid-April.

The deposition would prevent Giuffrida from serving as a priest at any Episcopal Church, but Giuffrida said the basis for his deposition is groundless. His priesthood is still recognized by the global Anglican Communion, he said, and the Anglican Mission is recognized by other Anglican bishops.

"I have abandoned nothing," he said.

The Rev. Gregory Jacobs, staff officer of urban ministry for the diocese and a consultant to Shaw, said the Episcopal Church does not recognize the Anglican Mission in America, and the primates who met in Tanzania cannot dictate policy to the U.S. church, and cannot interfere in the jurisdiction of U.S. bishops.

Shaw also has ordered a review and audit of All Saints church finances, saying that some records left behind by the Anglican parish were incomplete and bills were outstanding that should have been paid.

Jacobs said a preliminary audit was done and a letter was sent to the parish attorney about expenses the diocese believes should have been covered.

"At this point, we are hopeful there will be a resolution," he said.

Giuffrida said the financial issues are in the hands of their attorney.

GLORIA LaBOUNTY can be reached at 508-236-0333 or at glabounty@thesunchronicle.com.