A hotbed of activity for anarchists, immigrants, and others planning protests against the Republican National Convention here next week turns out to be an Episcopal church in the East Village.

This week alone, St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, at Second Avenue and East 10th Street, was to host a protest group bazaar called the No RNC Clearinghouse, an Immigrant’s Day of Action, and numerous prayer-for-peace services. In the past month, it hosted protests by performance artists, a swap meet thrown by anarchists, and a press conference for the A31 Coalition (“Regime Change Begins Now”).

Federal election laws allow houses of worship to help issue-oriented political groups, but they risk losing their tax-exempt status if they engage in activity that directly supports or works against a federal candidate for election. Press coverage in this campaign has so far focused on efforts by the Bush campaign to reach out to Pennsylvania churches. But Mr. Bush’s opponents have their religious supporters as well, to judge by the activity at St. Mark’s. While St. Mark’s leaders limited their rhetoric to anti-war speeches, groups using their space have held up “No Bush” signs and set up anti-RNC booths on church grounds.

“We provide a ministry of space,” said the church’s clerk and a member of its vestry, Jerry Long.

That means allowing groups that agree with the church’s principles to use its rooms as an office and its large central room as a meeting hall. The space is closed to groups that support the Bush administration, church officials said.

“We only want groups that espouse a point of view that reflects the immigrant and working-class community we live in,” said a member of Community Board 3 and church member, George Diaz.

Mr. Long put it more succinctly: “Organizers for the status quo would not be welcome.”

Such activity skates close to the line of federal election law, but not across it, one expert said. “Letting an anti-Bush group set up an anti-Bush booth on church grounds?” said an attorney and former FEC commissioner, Trevor Potter. “That’s a step or two away from a violation.”

The church’s parent, the Episcopal Diocese of New York, issued a statement on the Republican convention saying, “We affirm the right of dissent, but also affirm that the expression of that dissent must be civil and nonviolent.”

The church has a long history. Peter Stuyvesant is buried there, and Martha Graham danced some of her first recitals there. The church was founded in 1799. The great grandson of New York Governor Peter Stuyvesant provided the funding to protect his ancestor’s tomb, and Stuyvesants were buried there until 1950, when the last direct heir Stuyvesant died, according to a church historian.

The seeds of social action were sewn in the 1830s, when evangelical priest Henry Anthon became rector and began his free Sunday school for the city’s impoverished residents. Arts grew in importance in the early 20th century, when Rector William Guthrie introduced the world to new forms of dance and gave Martha Graham her start.

The heyday of St. Mark’s activism began in 1959 with Father Michael Allen, now the dean of the Episcopal Church in St.Louis, Mo. He opened the church’s space to radical arts groups, including the Poetry Project founded by Allen Ginsburg, W.H. Auden, and William Burroughs.

After a period of relative dormancy during the prosperous 1990s, the church again became a site for political dissent under the guidance of the priest-in-charge, Father Julio Torres and longtime social activist Father Frank Morales. Father Torres is in his native El Salvador right now, but Father Morales spoke with the Sun.

“We believe dissent is the highest form of patriotism,” said the lanky, black-clad priest, before giving his Sunday service. “War is just a red herring. Violence is a blunt instrument.”

While every protest group to go public said it will not harm people, few have been willing to repudiate damage to property, especially property owned by large corporations.

“Violence directed against property reinforces the notion that violence is productive,” Father Torres said in what may be interpreted as a caution to some of the angrier protesters.

He believes most violence in peaceful protests is because of federal or city “agents provocateur.”

The current wave of activism began immediately after the attacks of September 11, 2001, when Father Torres, worried about the rush to war in Afghanistan, initiated series of lectures called “Waging Peace” that brought together academics, experts, and believers from many faiths and outlooks to discuss and debate world politics. But perhaps more importantly to the current wave of protests, the church began hosting meetings of the Direct Action Network, which rose to fame during the protests surrounding the World Trade Organization talks in Seattle in 1999.