Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church
Global Spiritual Community
Please join us at the Cowell Theater Fort Mason this Friday August 23 at 6 PM for a magnificent event and fundraiser for the St. John Coltrane Church!! Supreme Love/Sound Color...
https://www.facebook.com/ColtraneChurch
New Hours & New LocationJoin us this Sunday at our new time 11:00 AM (PST)at theMagic Theater 2 Marina Blv. 3rd FloorFort Mason in the MarinaDr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Speech at 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
"God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create-and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations."
"Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music."
"Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument."
"It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith."
"In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these."
"We must use time creatively." - Martin Luther King, Jr
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Worship Service
"I think music is an instrument. It can create the initial thought patterns that can change the thinking of the people."
-St. John Will I Am Coltrane
A Love Supreme Meditation
First Sunday of Every Month
Come calm the mind and tune into the spirit as you are guided through a meditation on the testimony and music of Saint John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Great for old time Coltrane lovers and new listeners as well. Join us and experience the power of this anointed sound...the music and wisdom of Saint John Coltrane.
Mass
Sunday 11:00 AM
We encourage everyone to participate in the services by singing along, clapping your hands, and dancing. If you play an instrument, bring it. Get your praise on! Mass consists of Confession, the Coltrane Liturgy, Scripture readings, Hymns, Spirituals, and Preaching.
Ministers
"Everywhere, you know, I want to be a force for real good."
-St. John Will I Am Coltrane
His Eminence The Most Reverend Archbishop F. W. King D.D.
Archbishop Jurisdiction of the West, Co-Founder
Learn more about Archbishop King on the History page.
Supreme Mother Rev. Marina King
Co-Founder, Sisters of Compassion
Learn more about Supreme Mother Marina on the History page.
Archpriest Rev. Wanika K. Stephens
Pastor and Rector, Interfaith Chaplin, Radio Minister
Pastor Wanika is an ordained minister and proponent of Coltrane Consciousness for the global community. She is also the host of the Uplift! broadcast on Radio KPOO 89.5FM, and a graduate of the Chaplaincy Institute Interfaith Seminary in Berkeley CA. Pastor Wanika also serves as Chaplain Resident at Marin General Hospital, and as a volunteer chaplain for the SFPD. Pastor Wanika remains active in the fight for social justice and human rights. Currently, she is working on her Masters of Theology at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific. A Go Fund Me Account has been set up for her support. If you would like to help please click on the link provided.
Rev. Father James Max Haqq
Priest, Sound Minister
Father James Max Haqq is a St. John Coltrane devotee who plays tenor and soprano saxophones and preaches when called upon to deliver the message. Over the years he has served the church in many capacities including the human outreach programs, choir, editing and writing for church publications, the Lenten Council, and special event coordinating committees. He has a wife, Hallie, and two small girls.
Rev. Mother Gloria
Deacon, Sisters of Compassion
Sister of Compassion with an emphasis on community building and engagement
Rev. Makeda Nueckel
Deacon, Sound Minister
Ordained at the age of 15, Rev. Makeda grew up in the church and participates in the choir. She is committed to the mission of St. John's and contributes to the further development of the global work.
Visit her website.
Rev. Marlee-I Mystic
Deacon Community Doula, and Holistic Practioner
Through a devoted practice of universal truths, Marlee-I strives to be a living example of the transformative power of the teachings of A Love Supreme. She embraces and acknowledges the ability of music to heal, transcend all borders, inspire action and transcend the consciousness of the planet. Her highest aspiration is to inspire others to practice a spiritual holistic lifestyle.
www.marleeimystic.com
Rev. Franzo King Jr.
Deacon, Sound Minister
Blessed with the gift of sound Rev. King is an anointed tenor and soprano saxophone player. He strives to embody the spirit of St. John Coltrane and he uses his gift to give All Praise To God.
Megan Haungs
Minister of Tap Percussion Dance - Ambassador to New York
Megan is honored to praise God and give thanks through dance and music at the Sunday services of the Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church. She has performed with the church at the Yerba Buena Gardens Festival, the Fillmore Street Jazz Festival and Grace Cathedral, and is the director of the Sacred Tap Dance Project.
Toes Tiranoff
Minister of Tap Percussion - Ambassador to New York
When on the West Coast, Toes gives thanks and praises through dance and music at the Sunday services of the St. John Coltrane African Orthodox Church. Toes carries the mission of the St. John Coltrane Church to New York where he resides and engages the tap percussion community.
Nicholas Louis Baham III Ph.D
Ph.D in Residence
Dr. Nicholas L. Baham III is a Professor of Ethnic Studies at California State University East Bay and teaches courses in African American Studies and Genders & Sexualities in Communities of Color. He is a long time church member, contributor and author of The Coltrane Church: Apostles of Sound, Agents of Social Justice
- AllT-shirt Sizes
Official Coltrane Church Artwork
This is the place to acquire your official icons, posters and cards of St. John Coltrane as found in the sanctuary of the historic St. John Coltrane Church of San Francisco. You can also acquire reproductions of other work by the church's very own and official iconographer Rev. Deacon Mark Dukes. The church has partnered with Fine Art America to better serve you with top quality reproductions, framing and easy and fast shipping. Fine Art America is the premier online marketplace for acquiring fine art originals and fine art prints.
Announcements
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"For us, the whole globe is community." - St. John Coltrane
FIRST MEDITATION SUNDAY
Streaming Live on FaceBook
"What makes us drawn to music is that our whole being is music; our mind and body, the nature in which we live, the nature which made us, all that is beneath and around us, it is all music; and we are close to all of this music, and live and have our being in music." - Hazrat Inayat Khan
First Sunday - Each Month
The Global Coltrane Community Comes Together
Join In!
A Love Supreme
EVERYONE IS WELCOME
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"For there is nothing in this world which can help one spiritually more than music. Meditation prepares, but music is the highest for touching perfection.
-Hazrat Inayat Khan
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Speech at 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival
"God has wrought many things out of oppression. He has endowed his creatures with the capacity to create-and from this capacity has flowed the sweet songs of sorrow and joy that have allowed man to cope with his environment and many different situations."
"Jazz speaks for life. The Blues tell the story of life's difficulties, and if you think for a moment, you will realize that they take the hardest realities of life and put them into music, only to come out with some new hope or sense of triumph. This is triumphant music."
"Modern Jazz has continued in this tradition, singing the songs of a more complicated urban existence. When life itself offers no order and meaning, the musician creates an order and meaning from the sounds of the earth which flow through his instrument."
"It is no wonder that so much of the search for identity among American Negroes was championed by Jazz musicians. Long before the modern essayists and scholars wrote of racial identity as a problem for a multiracial world, musicians were returning to their roots to affirm that which was stirring within their souls. Much of the power of our Freedom Movement in the United States has come from this music. It has strengthened us with its sweet rhythms when courage began to fail. It has calmed us with its rich harmonies when spirits were down. And now, Jazz is exported to the world. For in the particular struggle of the Negro in America there is something akin to the universal struggle of modern man. Everybody has the Blues. Everybody longs for meaning. Everybody needs to love and be loved. Everybody needs to clap hands and be happy. Everybody longs for faith."
"In music, especially this broad category called Jazz, there is a stepping stone towards all of these."
"We must use time creatively." - Martin Luther King, Jr
History of the Saint John Coltrane Church
It was our first wedding anniversary September 18, 1965 and we celebrated the occasion by going to the Jazz Workshop. The plan was to start with John Coltrane and then check out some other entertainment venues. But when John Coltrane came onto the stage we could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit moving with him. He lifted his soprano sax, pointed it at us, focused on us with his big clear eyes and began playing what seemed to be a non-stop one movement suite. We did not talk to each other during the performance because we were caught up in what later would be known as our Sound Baptism. Even in a jazz club we experienced the effectual transference of the Holy Ghost through sound.
After much repeated listening, subsequent reading and meditation we experienced a greater sense of awareness concerning the significance of John Coltrane's expression through his horn. Coltrane would claim "Yes, I think the music is rising, in my estimation, it's rising into something else, and so we'll have to find this kind of place to be played in." That experience and those words had a lot to do with the forming and structure of this church. We further witnessed a second performance of John Coltrane in 1966. Here John Coltrane expanded the classic quartet and unleashed the kind of Holy Ghost power that is at the center of our religious beliefs and practices.
On July 17, 1967 Archbishop King was at Bop City when he heard the news of John Coltrane's ascension. From the time of our arrival in San Francisco, we maintained our apartment in Potrero Hill as a cultural space for listening and learning about jazz music and African American culture. With the help of Archbishop King's brother Landres we established "The Jazz Club" where people would bring new recordings and readings and we would host listening parties. Upon hearing of John Coltrane's ascension we were moved with a greater sense of urgency to increase our activity, and in 1968 "The Jazz Club" became the "Yardbird Club" where we offered an after-hours venue for musicians visiting the Bay Area to experiment with new sounds and ideas. In its heyday the community owned "Yardbird Club", it was an oasis in an atmosphere of rapidly diminishing Black ownership of jazz club venues. We saw ourselves as bringing the music back to the community.
By 1969 our spiritual yearnings and understanding of the essentially sacred message of John Coltrane's music would necessitate a shift from "Yardbird Club" to the "Yardbird Temple," and our efforts would move from purely cultural to spiritual. The "Yardbird Temple" was a manifestation of how we were being guided by the Holy Ghost. We would move toward meditation, fasting, prayer, and remove everything that we understood to be at odds with the spiritual elevation of the music. We were now seeking the spiritual enlightenment promised by the 1965 Sound Baptism. The "Yardbird Temple" would evolve into the "One Mind Temple" in 1971 when we moved to 201 Sawyer Street, the "One Mind Temple" would also come to be known as the "One Mind Temple Evolutionary Transitional Body of Christ" upon further relocation to 351 Divisadero Street. The One Mind Temple Years (1971-'74) coincided with our activist involvement with the Black Panther Party and the creation and expansion of food, clothing and shelter programs for the poor. Here at One Mind Temple we attempted to realize the charitable and compassionate vision of Jesus Christ and our patron Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane.
In 1981 His Eminence Archbishop Hinkson of the African Orthodox Church would send an emissary, Bishop Ajari, to San Francisco to invite the "One Mind Temple"/"Vedantic Center" congregation to join the African Orthodox Church. The African Orthodox Church was founded in 1921 in the midst of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) under the belief that black Episcopalians should have a denomination of their own. Bishop Alexander McGuire, who had served for many years as a UNIA chaplain, served as the first Archbishop of the African Orthodox Church. Under the tutelage of Archbishop George Duncan Hinkson, Archbishop King would study in Chicago and would be consecrated in 1984 as a Bishop. The church would briefly become know as the "One Mind Temple Missionary Episcopate of the African Orthodox Church." Upon the granting of sainthood for John Coltrane, the church would become the Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane African Orthodox Church where we have continued to evolve as a religious, cultural, and political force in the community even in spite of our relocation from 351 Divisadero to 930 Gough Street and now 1286 Fillmore Street in the heart of the redeveloped Western Addition and San Francisco's developing "Jazz Preservation District"
Outreach
"When there's something we think could be better, we must make an effort to try and make it better. So it is the same socially, musically, politically and in any department in our lives."
-St. John Will I Am Coltrane
Radio Ministry
Host Administrator: Wanika K. Stephens
Prison Ministry: Franzo King III
Hosted By: William Palmer
In the midst of the week and the thick of the work day tune in for musical upliftment and renewal with the healing sound of St. John Will I Am Coltrane. Be inspired by interviews and commentaries and enlightened with Coltrane quotes and occasional interviews from the Coltrane archives.
Every Tuesday from 12-4pm PST on 89.5FM KPOO
Available World Wide via the TuneIn Website and App or via KPOO.com
"Some of the best radio on the airwaves" San Francisco Magazine
Workshops and Lectures
Send official request to coltraneaoc@gmail.com
Archbishop King, Professor Nicholas Baham III and others are available to speak to your audience on subjects ranging from The Spirituality of St. John Coltrane, The History and Origins of African American Classical Music, The Power of Sound and much more.
Contact Us
Our New Address:
2 Marina Blvd
Fort Mason - Building D - 3rd Floor
San Francisco CA 94123
(415) 673-7144 (PST)
Sunday Service 11:00 AM
Uplift Radio Show KPOO Tuesdays 12-4PM
A Love Supreme!
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The Blog
"Expression, that's what it is." -St. John Will I Am Coltrane
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Celebrate half a century of devotion and service