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== History ==
== History ==


The Coptic mansion emerged from one of the Jamaican chapters of the [[Ethiopian World Federation]] during the 1940s. It was founded by Lovell Williams, known as Brother Louv, who first set out the key doctrines of the church.<ref>
The Coptic mansion emerged as a distinct group from one of the Jamaican chapters of the [[Ethiopian World Federation]] during the 1940s. It was founded by Lovell Williams, known as Brother Louv, who first laid out the key doctrines of the church.<ref>
{{cite journal|last1=Barnett|first1=Michael|date=June 1, 2005|title=The many faces of Rasta: Doctrinal Diversity within the Rastafari Movement|doi=10.1080/00086495.2005.11672267|journal=Caribbean Quarterly|volume=51|issue=2|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2005.11672267}}</ref>. In these early years Brother Louv would engage in many 'reasonings', or discussions, both with his own followers and with those of other Rastafari groups<ref name="michael-barnett-book" />. These would regularly be accompanied by ganja smoking. The church established its headquarters at Mountain View Avenue<ref name="michael-barnett-book" />, on the outskirts of Kingston, and also set up squatter camps where followers would live on vacant government land<ref>
{{cite journal|last1=Barnett|first1=Michael|date=June 1, 2005|title=The many faces of Rasta: Doctrinal Diversity within the Rastafari Movement|doi=10.1080/00086495.2005.11672267|journal=Caribbean Quarterly|volume=51|issue=2|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00086495.2005.11672267}}</ref>. The church established its headquarters at Mountain View Avenue<ref name="michael-barnett-book" />, at the foot of the Wareika Hills. The camp was close to other Rasta camps on the eastern side of Kingston, such as [[Count_Ossie|Count Ossie]], many with a different character than those to the west of the city.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Lee|first1=Hélène|author-link1=Hélène_Lee|title=The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism|isbn=9781556525582|year=2004|chapter=28 Count Ossie|page=248|quote=Up until this point, Wareika and Rockfort had been the towns of the free thinkers among the Rastas. According to Verona Reckord, the movement's "Big Three" were Count Ossie, his saxophonist friend Big Bra Gaynair, and Bro Filmore Alvaranga (today the patriarch of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari). To those must be added Brother Love, a Rasta elder who used to preach in Mountain View on the western slope of the Wareika Hills.}}</ref> These were typically squatter camps, set up on 'captured' government lands.<ref>
{{cite web|url=https://www.ethiopianzioncopticchurch.org/history/|title=Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, History in this Present Generation|publisher=Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church|last=Wells|first=Walter W.|archive-url=https://archive.is/5BkIF|archive-date=January 12, 2024|quote=most of our Camp sites were on captured government lands. We were in those times called squatters by our religious and political oppressors and society as a whole.}}</ref>.
{{cite web|url=https://www.ethiopianzioncopticchurch.org/history/|title=Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, History in this Present Generation|publisher=Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church|last=Wells|first=Walter W.|archive-url=https://archive.is/5BkIF|archive-date=January 12, 2024|quote=most of our Camp sites were on captured government lands. We were in those times called squatters by our religious and political oppressors and society as a whole.}}</ref> Brother Louv would engage in many 'reasonings', or discussions, within his own group and with those from other camps,<ref name="michael-barnett-book" /> which were often accompanied by ganja smoking.<ref name="the-law-and-brother-louv">{{cite news|title=The Law and Brother Louv|first=Carl|last=Hiaasen|date=August 2, 1981|publisher=Miami Herald|url=https://erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_spirit_media1.shtml|archive-url=https://archive.is/MMOAh|archive-date=January 13, 2024}}</ref>


It first established its organization in the United States in [[Star Island (Miami Beach)|Star Island]], Florida with a commune of around 40 members. The commune follows a combination of teachings from the Bible, Old and New Testament, which have been compared to [[Billy Graham|Billy Graham's]] fundamentalism, and Kosher law.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, CBS News - 60 Minutes, Volume XII, Number 7, Oct. 28, 1979 |url=https://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_spirit3.shtml |archive-url= |access-date=11 October 2022 |website=}}</ref> Similar to the [[Rastafari|Rastafari Movement]], the Coptic's views are based on the teachings of [[Marcus Garvey]] and they use [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] as [[sacrament]].<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/potbible.htm Marijuana and the Bible]</ref> It is a misconception that pious Rastafarians smoke marijuana recreationally, and some (in particular, the canonical Ethiopian Orthodox and classical Elders) do not use it at all. However, many Rastafarian teachers have advocated for controlled ritual smoking of 'wisdom weed' in private as a meditation tool and communally from 'chalice' pipes as an 'incense to please the Lord.'<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Hugh Redington |first=Norman |date=1994 |title=Rastafarians and Orthodoxy |url=https://jbburnett.com/resources/redington_rasta.pdf |access-date=11 October 2022}}</ref>
It first established its organization in the United States in [[Star Island (Miami Beach)|Star Island]], Florida with a commune of around 40 members. The commune follows a combination of teachings from the Bible, Old and New Testament, which have been compared to [[Billy Graham|Billy Graham's]] fundamentalism, and Kosher law.<ref>{{Cite web |date= |title=Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, CBS News - 60 Minutes, Volume XII, Number 7, Oct. 28, 1979 |url=https://www.erowid.org/plants/cannabis/cannabis_spirit3.shtml |archive-url= |access-date=11 October 2022 |website=}}</ref> Similar to the [[Rastafari|Rastafari Movement]], the Coptic's views are based on the teachings of [[Marcus Garvey]] and they use [[cannabis (drug)|cannabis]] as [[sacrament]].<ref>[http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/potbible.htm Marijuana and the Bible]</ref> It is a misconception that pious Rastafarians smoke marijuana recreationally, and some (in particular, the canonical Ethiopian Orthodox and classical Elders) do not use it at all. However, many Rastafarian teachers have advocated for controlled ritual smoking of 'wisdom weed' in private as a meditation tool and communally from 'chalice' pipes as an 'incense to please the Lord.'<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Hugh Redington |first=Norman |date=1994 |title=Rastafarians and Orthodoxy |url=https://jbburnett.com/resources/redington_rasta.pdf |access-date=11 October 2022}}</ref>

Revision as of 13:56, 13 January 2024

The Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church is a religious movement that originated in Jamaica during the 1940s[1] and later spread to the United States, being incorporated in Florida in 1975[2]. It espouses a form of Christianity based on the teachings of Marcus Garvey, embracing Pan-Africanism and incorporating elements from Kumina and other indigenous traditions in its worship. The church holds many beliefs in common with the Rastafari, including the use of marijuana as a sacrament, but it differs from most Rastas on the matter of Haile Selassie's divinity[3].

History

The Coptic mansion emerged as a distinct group from one of the Jamaican chapters of the Ethiopian World Federation during the 1940s. It was founded by Lovell Williams, known as Brother Louv, who first laid out the key doctrines of the church.[4]. The church established its headquarters at Mountain View Avenue[1], at the foot of the Wareika Hills. The camp was close to other Rasta camps on the eastern side of Kingston, such as Count Ossie, many with a different character than those to the west of the city.[5] These were typically squatter camps, set up on 'captured' government lands.[6] Brother Louv would engage in many 'reasonings', or discussions, within his own group and with those from other camps,[1] which were often accompanied by ganja smoking.[7]

It first established its organization in the United States in Star Island, Florida with a commune of around 40 members. The commune follows a combination of teachings from the Bible, Old and New Testament, which have been compared to Billy Graham's fundamentalism, and Kosher law.[8] Similar to the Rastafari Movement, the Coptic's views are based on the teachings of Marcus Garvey and they use cannabis as sacrament.[9] It is a misconception that pious Rastafarians smoke marijuana recreationally, and some (in particular, the canonical Ethiopian Orthodox and classical Elders) do not use it at all. However, many Rastafarian teachers have advocated for controlled ritual smoking of 'wisdom weed' in private as a meditation tool and communally from 'chalice' pipes as an 'incense to please the Lord.'[10]

In 1979 the group was accused, tried, and convicted of smuggling massive amounts of potent cannabis from Jamaica to Miami in actions that kept the Jamaican economy afloat that decade. The then-Jamaican Prime Minister Edward Seaga told a U.S. interview "It's just a little sinsemilla that it keep the country going right now". The Coptics published a free newspaper promoting Garveyism and the decriminalization of marijuana titled "Coptic Times". They also appeared on 60 Minutes on October 28, 1979. The group's leader was Niah Keith Gordon, and its spokesman in the US was Thomas Reilly, also known as Brother Louv. During the same year, The Supreme Court of Florida found: "(1) the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church represents a religion within the first amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and (2) the “use of cannabis is an essential portion of the religious practice."[11] "Further, the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church is not a new church or religion but the record reflects it is centuries old and has regularly used cannabis as its sacrament”.[11]

In 1986 the organization participated in the Drug Enforcement Administration's hearings on cannabis rescheduling in the United States.

On January 19, 2017[12] Jim Tranmer, a member of the group, was pardoned and released from prison by Barack Obama before he left the office of the President of the United States. Tramner had received a 33 year prison sentence for possession of cannabis because he defended the sacramentality and goodness of cannabis without repentance. Today many are grateful for his sacrifice and his release is an acknowledgement in the paradigm change that has taken place since the majority of the population now see that to fight against a medicinal plant is a detrimental social policy.

Carl Olsen ran for governor in Iowa, as a Libertarian, in 1994 and for the U.S. House of Representatives, again as a Libertarian, in 1996. He is currently a priest in the Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, and resides in Iowa.

The EZCC is not associated with either the Coptic Orthodox Church or the Coptic Catholic Church, both based in Egypt. The Coptic Orthodox Church has an Ethiopian sister church, which is also unrelated. The Garveyite Coptic were most closely tied to the African Orthodox Church than to Egypt. The EZCC gets its namesake from a 1959 mission to Ethiopia in which the archbishop brought a group of young Ethiopian priests and deacons to study in American universities. However, the clergy cut ties with the Garveyite Coptic organization in New York and set up its own parishes that addressed the needs of Ethiopian immigrants.[10]

The Zion Coptic Church appeared in the 2011 Billy Corben documentary Square Grouper: The Godfathers of Ganja, whose first section concerns the group and features interviews with former members. In Brazil there are the First Niubingui Church Etiope Coptic of Zion of Brasil.

References

  1. ^ a b c Barnett, Michael (2017). "Chapter 3 - The different mansions of the Rastafari movement". The Rastafari Movement: A North American and Caribbean Perspective. ISBN 1138682152.
  2. ^ "UNITED STATES TAX COURT Memo 1989-593". Archived from the original on January 12, 2023. On April 15, 1975, ZCC was incorporated in the State of Florida
  3. ^ Barrett, Leonard E. (1998). The Rastafarians. Boston: Beacon Press. p. 239. ISBN 9780807010396. By 1976 the church had adopted Rastafarian-like beliefs without accepting the divinity of Haile Selassie
  4. ^ Barnett, Michael (June 1, 2005). "The many faces of Rasta: Doctrinal Diversity within the Rastafari Movement". Caribbean Quarterly. 51 (2). doi:10.1080/00086495.2005.11672267.
  5. ^ Lee, Hélène (2004). "28 Count Ossie". The First Rasta: Leonard Howell and the Rise of Rastafarianism. p. 248. ISBN 9781556525582. Up until this point, Wareika and Rockfort had been the towns of the free thinkers among the Rastas. According to Verona Reckord, the movement's "Big Three" were Count Ossie, his saxophonist friend Big Bra Gaynair, and Bro Filmore Alvaranga (today the patriarch of the Mystic Revelation of Rastafari). To those must be added Brother Love, a Rasta elder who used to preach in Mountain View on the western slope of the Wareika Hills.
  6. ^ Wells, Walter W. "Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, History in this Present Generation". Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church. Archived from the original on January 12, 2024. most of our Camp sites were on captured government lands. We were in those times called squatters by our religious and political oppressors and society as a whole.
  7. ^ Hiaasen, Carl (August 2, 1981). "The Law and Brother Louv". Miami Herald. Archived from the original on January 13, 2024.
  8. ^ "Ethiopian Zion Coptic Church, CBS News - 60 Minutes, Volume XII, Number 7, Oct. 28, 1979". Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  9. ^ Marijuana and the Bible
  10. ^ a b Hugh Redington, Norman (1994). "Rastafarians and Orthodoxy" (PDF). Retrieved 11 October 2022.
  11. ^ a b "Town v. State, 377 So.2d 648 (Fla. 1979)". November 1, 1979. Retrieved March 1, 2017.
  12. ^ "Commutations Granted by President Barack H. Obama (2009-2017)". 12 January 2015. Retrieved 19 January 2022.


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