The Church of John Coltrane

If you are one of those music lovers who believes people can find religion in jazz, perhaps the Church of John Coltrane is for you. The church, whose full name is the Saint John Will-I-Am Coltrane Orthodox Church, (no, really) can be found on Fillmore Street in San Francisco.

The church was founded in 1971 by Archbishop Franzo King and Reverend Mother Marina King, who were moved after seeing John Coltrane perform in 1965.

The church was originally called the "Yardbird Temple" until 1982 when the church joined the African Orthodox Church, changed its name and declared John Coltrane a saint, or "The Risen Trane."

From the Church of Coltrane mission webpage:

"The ascension of St. John Coltrane into one-ness with God is what we refer to as the Risen Trane. In dealing with the Saint, John Coltrane, we are not dealing with St. John the man but St. John the sound and St. John the Evangelist and Sound Baptist, who attained union with God through sound. From the standpoint of the biography of John Coltrane, the Risen Trane is the post 1957 John Coltrane. He who emerged from drug addiction onto a path of spiritual awakening and who gave testimony of the power and empowerment of grace of God in his life and in his Psalm on A Love Supreme, and in his music thereafter."

Below is a video produced from Turnstyle News, capturing the ideas of the Church of Coltrane.