CLEVELAND, Ohio -- The Cleveland Pride festival, canceled on Saturday because of expected heavy rains, will be rescheduled, said the Rev. Rod Mundy, the incoming president and CEO of Cleveland Pride Inc.

Mundy said the event will go on but could not say when "until I get the board together." He said he doubted the new date would be in July.

Asked how the second effort for a 2015 festival will differ from the first, Mundy said, "well for one thing, the synod will no longer be here."

The United Church of Christ is having its biennial synod here this weekend, that has drawn around 4,000 people. Mundy, a UCC minister, had said that as many as 2,000 of the UCC participants were expected to join in the Saturday pride parade -- the high point of the festival.

The parade route was to go down Lakeside Avenue toward East Ninth Street, right past the Cleveland Convention Center, the main venue for the synod.

Vicci Simpkins, one of the primary organizers of this year's march, said she and more than a dozen volunteers came to the parade staging area by Browns Stadium after the cancellation decision was made to turn away anyone who showed up for the noon parade.

She said the volunteers also made a point of phoning many participants and vendors who were supposed to be at the festival to tell them the event was postponed.

This was to be the 27th pride festival here, and it took on deeper meaning Friday following the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling that legalized same-sex marriage in the country.

That decision was expected to lure more people than usual to the festival. It was to run until 8 p.m. at Voinovich Park.

Though the synod will be over, many regional UCC members are almost certain to participate in the rescheduled festival.

The UCC is widely considered to be the first mainstream denomination to support open marriage and LGBT rights in general as articles of faith.