A documentary film created by Pastor Laurie Hays Coffman and three others won an Emmy Award during the Mid-South Awards Ceremony Jan. 30 in Nashville, Tenn.

The 30-minute film, "Coming Out, Coming In: Faith, Identity, Belonging," which aired last year on WUNC-TV, is about gay Christians coming to grips with their faith and their orientation, their love of God and their longing for Christian community.

It was selected by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences as the outstanding Topical Documentary of the year.

"This Emmy is a dream come true," said Hays Coffman. "It's one more way to help the world see what beautiful gifts God has invested in gay Christians, and what a waste [it is] when churches are afraid to bring those gifts to light."

She and the other three, Susan Acker-Walsh, Andy Baxter and Keith Martin, were 2001-03 William. C. Friday Fellows, a program of the Wildacres Leadership Initiative designed to equip emerging leaders of North Carolina with human relations skills for practicing integrity, intention and inclusion. The video was a project they produced during that time along with Minnow Media, a multimedia group in Carrboro led by Georgann Eubanks and Donna Campbell.

Hays Coffman has been the pastor at Calvary for 16 years. Designated as the first "reconciling" United Methodist church in North and South Carolina, Calvary welcomes people of all races, ethnicities, gender identities and sexual orientations as part of the congregation and its ministry.

This Old North Durham church built in 1916, one of the older United Methodist congregations in the city, is now known for its progressive theology. It has led the way toward full inclusion in other churches as well, Hays Coffman said.

One of its ministries each September is called the "water project" in which members hand out bottles of cool water to walkers in the N.C. Gay Pride Parade held in Durham, inviting them to come and worship at Calvary.

Copies of "Coming Out, Coming In" may be ordered through the Web site where a preview clip may be seen: www.coming-out-coming-in.net.

Pastor Hays Coffman is available for screenings and dialogue in community groups and local congregations. She can be reached at 688-7138 or pathway2grace@ CalvaryNC.org.