Today's ceremony is the result of months of delicate negotiations among McKinnon, Bishop M. Thomas Shaw of Massachusetts, and Bishop Donald F. Harvey, the retired bishop of Eastern Newfoundland and Labrador. Shaw is a leading supporter of gay rights; Harvey is a leading critic of Robinson's consecration.

Both sides appear to have put aside much of the bitterness that has accompanied efforts elsewhere in the nation to work out compromises. McKinnon and Harvey praise Shaw, despite their theological disagreements, for allowing them to minister to the Marlborough congregation. McKinnon said he has been stunned to find himself welcomed by the area's clergy.

Shaw said: "During this time of discussion and learning to live together within the diversity of opinion in the Anglican Communion, the Episcopal Church, and the Diocese of Massachusetts, we are open to new ways of being together and responding to the pastoral needs of our parishes."

All three clearly view this as an experiment.

Shaw and Harvey, who have never met, signed a two-year agreement allowing Harvey to provide pastoral oversight of the Marlborough parish, including officiating at baptisms and confirmations; McKinnon pledged that the Church of the Holy Trinity would continue to fulfill its financial obligations to the Massachusetts Diocese, that he would be an active participant in diocesan activities, and that the parish would allow a Massachusetts bishop to visit once a year.

Harvey, who says that "homosexual practice is contrary to the word of God," was among a handful of Canadian bishops who lodged a formal objection to Robinson's consecration as bishop. But he said he welcomed the opportunity to see whether the Episcopal Church can bridge its differences.

"This is an excellent case where a parish, a new priest, and an outside bishop have all been able to agree with the terms that the official diocesan bishop has laid down," Harvey said. "Some would say that's the guidance of the Holy Spirit; others would say we're grasping at straws to try to hold this together. But I'm excited about being there, and I think it will be a time of great joy and not of bashing authority or of controversy."

Episcopal Church officials say there are other US dioceses experimenting with what the denomination calls "delegated Episcopal pastoral oversight," but that the phenomenon is so new they do not yet have statistics about its use. In Rhode Island, for example, Bishop Geralyn Wolf has for years allowed an out-of-state male bishop to minister to a parish that objects to having a female bishop.

But Bishop Robert Duncan of Pittsburgh -- the head of the Anglican Communion Network, an alliance of conservative Episcopalians -- said in a telephone interview that the compromise in Marlborough remains a rarity because many conservative parishes view such solutions as insufficient.

"I'm delighted that Bishop Shaw has tried to respond to that congregation," Duncan said. "But there are very few places that are doing anything like what's being done in Massachusetts."

The Rev. William L. Murdoch, the rector of All Saints Church in West Newbury and the dean of the New England convocation of the Anglican Communion Network, said, "We're hoping that here in Massachusetts we can keep reasonable and good conversation going."

Murdoch said that four congregations in New England have broken with their dioceses since the consecration of Robinson and that a number of former Episcopalians meet in "house fellowships" rather than continue to attend local Episcopal churches. But he said that other congregations, such as his and the parish in Marlborough, are choosing to remain in the Episcopal Church while working for change.

"The people in Marlborough are making no apologies for their dissent, but at the same time they are respecting Bishop Shaw for his position, and he is respecting the dissent of the parish," said Murdoch, who will be co-officiating at the induction ceremony.

Holy Trinity is a small parish that dwindled because it was without a rector for several years. When McKinnon arrived, about 20 people attended worship, and now there are about 40. Parishioners found McKinnon by advertising on conservative websites.

"We were looking for someone who would let us carry on with our orthodox faith, and, as you know, we're in a liberal diocese here, so it wasn't very easy; not many orthodox priests would want to come here," said Stephen S. Walker of Marlborough, the chairman of the parish search committee. "We continue to pray that all of this comes together in a sensible way, but none of us is predicting anything at this point."

McKinnon is a 36-year-old Connecticut native who served as a rector in the diocese of Quincy, Ill., one of the most conservative dioceses in the Episcopal Church USA. When he spotted the ad for the Marlborough opening on the Internet, he said, he thought, "These poor people, being in the Diocese of Massachusetts."

McKinnon, who has been in Marlborough since October but is being officially inducted today, said he would agree to consider becoming rector of the parish only if he was "placed under the spiritual authority of an orthodox bishop."

"We hope to be a place of refuge for orthodox Anglicans," he said, "but we don't want to just be the place that the frustrated come to. All persons are welcome, even if they disagree with our theological positions."

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