The Rev. Jennifer Sanders, a pioneering lesbian pastor in Birmingham who once officiated the same-sex wedding for a former Miss America, has retired from her job as pastor.

Sanders was elected pastor of the 120-member Beloved Community Church in Avondale in 2016. She led her final service as pastor on Jan. 26.

Beloved, founded in 2000, is affiliated with the United Church of Christ, one of the more liberal mainline denominations.

Former Miss Alabama 2004 and Miss America 2005 Deidre Downs Gunn married attorney Abbott Jones in a ceremony April 14, 2018, at the Birmingham Museum of Art, with Sanders officiating.

“It was a beautiful wedding,” Sanders said at the time. “They are a wonderful, happy couple. It was a joy to perform the ceremony.”

Sanders declined to discuss her retirement. “I’m trying to just quietly fade away,” she said in an email. But added, “You’ll still see me around in activist and other circles.”

That includes her mission of “fighting dehumanization and exploitation in all their forms,” she said.

Sanders has a bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Rice University and graduated from UAB in 1998 with a master’s degree in occupational therapy. She worked for more than 15 years as an occupational therapist at nursing homes and hospitals in Birmingham.

Beloved Community Church, which is at 131 41st Street South next to the Avondale Brewery, holds services on Sundays at 6 p.m.

Beloved will be led by a team of co-pastors and a lay transition team, while looking for the next pastor, Sanders said.

Sanders plans to work through her personal web site: https://whattheheartholds.com