A downtown restaurant is now home to a church that embraces gays and people of color.

For more than a month, Sofia on 11th and its owners, Jeremy and Vicki Bennett and partner Martin Tejeda, have welcomed A Church for All to take over a 1,500-square-foot banquet room. That has allowed the church to continue providing a spiritual meeting place for its diverse members.

The Rev. Doretha Flournoy describes it as a "radically inclusive" church with an interest in social justice and unique ideas about "how God operates in the world."

"If you walk into A Church for All on a Sunday morning, you'll see African-American folks, Latino folks, Caucasians. You'll see transgender folks. You'll see drag queens. You'll see lesbians. You'll see straight people. You'll see gay people," Flournoy said. "I often just kind of look at the congregation and say, 'Wow — how did we do this?' "

Sofia, at 815 11th St., is known for its big lunch crowds, private parties and meeting space. The church's openness helped convince Sofia's owners that renting out space in a restaurant otherwise closed on Sundays — but at half the normal rate — was the right thing to do, Jeremy Bennett said.

"They don't shun anyone, which I thought was really cool," Bennett said recently while managing the restaurant.

The church has its roots in the Metropolitan Community Church, the world's first church created to minister to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender community. The three reverends at A Church For All were ordained by MCC and split off from Metropolitan Community Church of Sacramento, which closed in May 2008 after 37 years.

While that church was operating in Mather, A Church for All wanted to stay close to what some Sacramentans know as "Lavender Heights," a concentration of gay-owned businesses near 20th and K streets.

Flournoy is a mother of two with a domestic partner. She also describes herself as a "very out" lesbian, African-American reverend, which she said is rare to find in church leadership.

Flournoy and two other pastors, Rosario Vargas and Charles Cooper, along with a launch team of 25 people, originally established the church at Club 21 at 21st and K streets. The club's owner, Terry Sidie, who also owns Faces and Head Hunters, invited the church to meet there monthly for free so the community would have a spiritual center, said Flournoy, a deputy director at the California Institute for Mental Health.

But people who partied there on Saturday nights found it difficult to show up at the same place for church the next day.

So they found a new home. And every Sunday, A Church for All meets in Sofia at the Best Western Sutter House from 1:30 to 3 p.m., a time that works well for anybody who went clubbing the night before, she said.

Curtains are drawn to hide the room's full-service bar, a portable stage is pulled out and chairs are set in rows in the recently renovated banquet room.

The church has about 50 regular members, and yet attendance remains very fluid. Flournoy, Vargas and Cooper watch to see who will be in the crowd each week.

"This church changes every Sunday I'm there," Flournoy said. "The room is always full."