For years, the presence of Christian groups at the N.C. Gay Pride Festival and Parade held annually in Durham were folks with bullhorns on the sidewalk suggesting that these visitors to the city take their festivities elsewhere.

In the past few years, however, attitudes have been changing and some area congregations have begun marching in the parade, handing out literature and riding on floats. The message is that people don't have to choose between their sexual orientation and their religion.

In Durham, one of the churches on the vanguard of this movement has been Calvary United Methodist, the first United Methodist reconciling congregation in North and South Carolina.

Calvary is sometimes called "the water church" because its members have carried on a unique ministry over the years of handing out bottles of cool water to walkers in the parade. Each bottle has a label with directions to the church and an invitation for marchers to attend worship. This year church members labeled 1,000 bottles of water for the event that will be held Saturday.

The Rev. Laurie Hays Coffman, the pastor, said one of the high moments in her ministry came a few years ago when a young man stepped out of the marching crowd, put his arms around her and said it was the first time he had seen anyone from a church at a parade without a bullhorn inviting him and his fellow walkers to get out of town.

Watts Street Baptist, which also supports the parade each year, will enter a float with a Noah's Ark theme. Most of the animals are cardboard and peeking out of the boat, but a few are real folks, like Tom Bloom, church organist, who will be dressed as Noah.

"We like the connection of the rainbow and our message across the back of our trailer/ark will be 'God loves all of God's Creatures,'" said Amy Armstrong, a member of the church's Peace and Reconciliation Mission Group.

"We hope that by marching we not only provide our LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) members and straight allies an opportunity to feel supported, but perhaps others will know that our church is a safe environment for both LGBT peoples and their straight allies who wish to worship in an environment that is open and supportive," she said.

Pilgrim United Church of Christ on Academy Drive is what the denomination calls "open and affirming," the designation for congregations, campus ministries and other bodies in the UCC that make public statements of welcome into full life and ministry to persons of all sexual orientations.

Again this year, Pilgrim will take part in the Pride Parade. In addition to a float and a cadre of marchers, the church will have a booth display in the festival area on Duke's East Campus, an area along the parade route. The Rev. Ginger Brasher-Cunningham, senior pastor at Pilgrim, will serve at the Ecumenical Communion service at 11 a.m. before the parade, which steps off at 1 p.m.

Binkley Baptist in Chapel Hill also will have a group marching in the Pride Parade behind their banner "All Are Welcome In This Place." They will have a booth on the festival grounds where members of the church will be available to talk with anyone interested in Binkley and its welcome and affirming stance.

Binkley is a member of the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptist Churches and is one of six welcoming and affirming Baptist churches in North Carolina.

An article in a recent newsletter from Binkley noted that the American Psychological Association has issued a striking reversal of previous guidelines for counseling clients to help them reject same-sex attractions.

"While the task force found no evidence that change therapy works, the task force was struck by the 'pain some men and women feel in trying to reconcile their sexual attractions with their faith,'" the article said. "For those from conservative faiths, affirming a gay identity could feel very much like renouncing their religious identity."

Members at Binkley were encouraged to help spread the message that people don't have to choose between their sexual orientation and their religion. The article noted that such a message coming from a Baptist church could be particularly meaningful.