"With much disappointment and sadness, (the parishioners) reached the decision that there was just not a critical mass of people to really make a viable go of it as a congregation," said Robinson in an interview Wednesday. "Perhaps it was time to rest."

The church will remain open until April, with the final service to be held Easter Sunday.

In June, a group of 36 parishioners decided they could not remain members of the church because Robinson refused to grant complete pastoral oversight to a more orthodox bishop. Robinson is the state's ninth Episcopal bishop and is openly gay.

The church and Robinson had been at odds for the past year over Robinson's service as an openly gay bishop, which they say is a sin he must repent and be saved from.

Robinson has said he does not feel he is committing a sin, and therefore does not have anything from which he needs to repent.

Since then, only 12 to 14 parishioners per week have attended Sunday service, placing both a financial and emotional burden on Redeemer's "administrative team," a group of parishioners who oversee the church's day-to-day operations.

"They've been doing a great job, but at considerable costs to themselves," said Robinson.

Looking forward, it became obvious there weren't enough people who could take the leadership roles once the current administrators stepped down. "It really became clear there wasn't anyone who was going to be able to step up," said the Rev. Canon Tim Rich of the Diocese of New Hampshire.

Parishioners voted 24-1 at Wednesday's annual meeting to approve the closure.

Robinson said the only dissenter did so "because he finally found a church he loved and didn't have anywhere else to go."

While the events of the summer certainly contributed to the church's closure, both the Diocese and parishioners have said the end of the road started a decade ago, the last time the church was financially self-sustained.

"We should have been asking ourselves about the viability of this church five or 10 years ago," said Kevin Gorham, a parishioner of 18 years who serves on the administrative team. "It was an event that made us face the facts, but the facts have been here."

One of those facts, said Gorham, is that pledges for the upcoming year only amounted to about $12,000, compared to $40,776 in 2003. The church's classification as a mission allowed the Diocese of New

Hampshire to provide it financial support, which has amounted to $200,000 over the past eight or nine years.

It came to a point where the Diocese had to consider whether or not those investments would benefit the future of the church.

That the request came from parishioners made the decision to close the church so much easier, said Robinson.

"They knew this was coming and they acted so responsibility in seeing the nonviability of keeping the church open," Robinson said. Over its history, the church has had a series of other divisive conflicts.

In April 1988, more than 100 parishioners at the Church of the Redeemer decided to break off their relationship with the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire and sought affiliation with an Anglican diocese.

The move came after the rector of the Church of the Redeemer attempted to institute changes in the church that began to put it in line with the national Episcopalian Church.

Some of those changes included installing female clergy and replacing the 1928 Book of Common Prayer with the 1979 version.

The splinter group became the Trinity Anglican Church and eventually constructed a new church on Rochester Hill Road.

The church's closure will not affect operations of the Dover Adult Learning Center or the Maturia Presbyterian Church, both of which operate within the building.

What happens to the building after April has yet to be decided, Robinson said.

In the face of the closure, Robinson said the parishioners made a mature and bold decision with grace and courage while treating each other admirably. "They handled it with lots of integrity, lots of new-found honesty, and a faith in a God that was going to see them through, no matter what the future turned out to be," said Robinson.

Both Gorham and Ann Elkins, a parishioner of 11 years, said they will find another place to worship.

"I can do this, because I think inevitably we knew this would happen," said Elkins. "I could stay through the strain, because I know my faith in God." And Robinson said the church will someday rise again. In what form or when is uncertain.

"God will reveal the new shape of ministry here," said Robinson

END