A House of Prayer for All Peoples
Glide Memorial Church sits at 330 Ellis Street, on the corner of Ellis and Taylor, in the heart of San Francisco's Tenderloin district. A five-minute walk from the Powell Street BART and MUNI station, the building has been a gathering place for nearly a century. Each Sunday more than 2,000 people pour through its doors for the 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday Celebrations, where the Glide Ensemble blends jazz, blues and gospel into something the church simply calls worship, and the Minister of Celebration preaches a Christianity built around unconditional love, radical inclusion and the work of justice. Around the church, the Glide Foundation operates the city's only program serving three free meals a day, 364 days a year, along with a constellation of services that touch every part of life in the Tenderloin: a harm reduction health hub, a childcare center, a women's trauma recovery program, a barbershop for older Black men, a 24-hour wellness center for young adults, a reunification program for people who want to return home, and a free drop-in legal clinic. Glide has been called the Bay Area's Church, a place where unhoused neighbors, drag queens, civil rights leaders, politicians, grandparents and teenagers sit in the same pews and sing together.
The story begins in 1929, when San Francisco philanthropist Lizzie Glide purchased a parcel at Ellis and Taylor and founded the Glide Foundation with the charitable mission of establishing a church as "a house of worship for all people." That Methodist church, Glide Memorial United Methodist Church, became the institutional anchor for what would become one of the most recognizable progressive institutions in the country. A century later, Mary Glide, Lizzie Glide's great-great-granddaughter, still sits on the church's board of directors and chairs the foundation board.
In 1963 a young African American minister named Cecil Williams joined other progressive ministers determined to bring life into a struggling congregation. He threw open the doors to the hippies, sex workers, chronic drug users, transgender youth and other poor and marginalized people of the Tenderloin. Soon Glide was a home for political and cultural change as well as spiritual growth. Williams and the poet, editor and activist Janice Mirikitani built the foundation into a powerhouse of social services while keeping Sunday Celebration at its center. Mirikitani, a Sansei (third-generation) Japanese American whose family had been confined in the Rohwer, Arkansas concentration camp during World War II, became San Francisco's second Poet Laureate in 2000.
In the 1970s, as the Vietnam War escalated, Glide became the counterculture rallying point in San Francisco; everyone from Bill Graham to Angela Davis came to speak at Sunday Celebrations, and KMEL and K101 began broadcasting the Sunday message throughout the Bay Area. In the 1980s the Daily Free Meals program went into overdrive, feeding the hungry and homeless three times a day, and the church organized against nuclear weapons and the crack cocaine epidemic while leading the Northern California Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Observance Committee. By the 1990s President Bill Clinton, Sharon Stone and Oprah Winfrey were coming through the doors. Williams led the church for more than sixty years. Both he and Mirikitani have since died and are remembered as posthumous emeritus members of the church's board. Today the Glide Foundation is led by President and CEO Dr. Gina Fromer, who arrived in the 2020s and is implementing an ambitious plan to expand integrated mobile services throughout the city, develop behavioral health services and raise money for the building's repair and expansion. Marvin K. White serves as Minister of Celebration.
Sunday Celebration at 330 Ellis
Sunday Celebration is the church's weekly worship service and the heart of its public life. Two services are held each Sunday, at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m., in the main Sanctuary at 330 Ellis Street. Both services are livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, with a phone dial-in option at (855) 412-3177 for those who cannot stream. Worship is described by the church as "a communal and individual embodied experience of God's love in the world," combining music, preaching, prayer and storytelling in a style that owes as much to liberation theology as it does to African American gospel tradition. The first Sunday of every month is Communion Sunday, with a diversity of elements offered to meet varying dietary needs. There is a Prayer and Witness team that offers prayer and testimony at both services, with training provided for newcomers who want to join.
Alongside the liturgy the church offers what it calls "Writer's Church," passing out free journals and pens each Sunday so congregants can begin writing what they are grateful for during the service. Prayer requests can be submitted through a form online and are read aloud during the Wednesday Prayer Circle. Ushers, also called Sunday Church Ambassadors, gather every second Sunday from 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. for training and fellowship; their stated mission is to "act as ambassadors of Glide's love and unconditional acceptance." Mary Glide's GLIDE Kids program runs concurrent with the services for younger children, giving them a chance to be creative and experience community through storytelling.
The Glide Ensemble and the Sound of the Movement
If Sunday Celebration has a signature, it is the sound of the Glide Ensemble. Under the direction of Director of Music Ministries Zoë Ellis, the Ensemble blends jazz, blues, gospel and soul into what the church calls "a movement of music and ministry." The group's Wednesday evening rehearsals in the Sanctuary, from 6 to 8 p.m., are open to anyone who wants to make "a joyful, soulful, revolutionary noise," and new voices are always welcome. The Ensemble has recorded, toured and shared the stage with artists ranging from Al Green, at San Francisco's Stern Grove Festival, to Patti LaBelle at the annual Holiday Jam fundraiser at The Warfield. Members of the Ensemble also form a Care Choir that brings music to hospice patients, palliative care residents and others who wish for music ministry to visit them.
Five Values, One Statement of Faith
Glide Memorial Church calls itself "a spiritual home for all people who are curious, seeking, committed, both certain and uncertain about how they understand their relationship with God." Its Statement of Faith is built around five anchors: Celebration, For the People, Loving and Hopeful, Radically Inclusive, and Truth Telling. The church teaches that God can be named or left unnamed, accepts the Jesus of liberation, recovery and discovery, and welcomes non-believers and those who consider themselves spiritual but not religious. It is explicitly committed to dismantling structural racism and all forms of internalized and externalized oppression, and describes itself as "an ever more welcoming home" for the Tenderloin and beyond.
These commitments are rooted in the five Core Values of the broader Glide movement, articulated by Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani: Radically Inclusive, Truth Telling, Loving and Hopeful, For the People, and Celebration. Radically Inclusive means welcoming everyone, valuing differences and respecting everyone, rooted in liberation theology and an African American tradition of acceptance. Truth Telling means each person tells their own story and speaks their own truth, and the community listens. Loving and Hopeful frames the community as a healing one in which "we are all in recovery." For the People calls the community to break through barriers and serve each other. Celebration means singing, dancing and laughing together.
The Bigger Table: Daily Meals and the Walk-In Center
Glide Memorial Church is one half of a two-part institution. The other half is the Glide Foundation, the nonprofit charitable arm that operates a portfolio of direct-service programs alongside the church. Last year the foundation served more than 655,000 free meals, distributed hygiene kits, socks and blankets to 4,347 people, and welcomed 7,528 volunteers. These are not church members in the traditional sense; they are the people who walk through the doors of 330 Ellis Street seeking food, clothing, showers, case management, recovery support, childcare, legal advice, a haircut or simply a place to sit down.
The Daily Free Meals program serves breakfast, lunch and dinner every day of the year except Christmas, making it the only program in San Francisco offering three free meals a day, 364 days a year. Volunteers prepare and serve roughly 1,500 meals a day in the dining hall, with corporate partners including GAP, Rethink Foods and Dominique Crenn's Crenn Dining Group supporting the operation. The Walk-In Center next door helps people meet immediate needs, distributing hygiene items, clothing, blankets, shoes, socks, DMV vouchers and birth certificates, and offering case management for housing applications, CalFresh food assistance and SSI. Rental assistance is provided weekdays from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Room 101, with a housing readiness workshop required for applicants.
Health, Recovery and The Shop
The Health Empowerment and Access Team, known as HEAT, operates a harm reduction hub on Ellis Street that offers syringe access and disposal, safer-use supplies, free HIV and Hepatitis C testing with results in 20 minutes, STI testing, overdose prevention training, Naloxone distribution and same-day Suboxone starts on Mondays and Fridays. The team also offers contingency management groups and a Medications for Opioid Use Disorder (MOUD) program in partnership with the San Francisco Department of Public Health street medicine team. UCSF nurses and doctors are on site in the Health Hub on Thursdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. providing vaccines, wound care and street outreach. The program has been recognized for its focus on the disproportionate impact of overdose on Black communities in San Francisco.
That same concern led to the opening in 2025 of The Shop, a barbershop in the Tenderloin that combines professional barber services with health education and peer support for older Black men, who account for 12% of recent overdose deaths in San Francisco despite representing less than 1% of the population. The Shop was supported by a $200,000 grant from the Saint Francis Foundation to expand behavioral health services, including licensed counseling and crisis support. When the rapper Killer Mike visited recently he told the men in the peer support group, "If you want to make a community healthier, go to the barbershop."
Walking With Women, Young Adults and Families
Beyond meals and health care, the foundation runs several programs aimed at specific populations in the Tenderloin. The Women's Center uses a trauma-informed care approach to help women heal from domestic violence, sexual assault, homelessness and substance use, providing support groups, healing circles, case management, counseling and life skills workshops. The Men's Center offers the Men in Progress program, supporting men who are working to unlearn violence and strengthen their relationships.
The Transitional Age Youth (TAY) Health and Wellness Center, at 888 Post Street, is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week for young adults ages 18 to 27 who are experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Co-located with the Lower Polk TAY Navigation Center, it offers case management, mental health support, medical care, showers, laundry, lockers, computer access, workforce development and pet care.
The Janice Mirikitani Family, Youth and Childcare Center (FYCC) at 434 Ellis Street provides licensed early education and childcare for children 18 months to 5 years old, plus afterschool care and the Family Resource Center, which offers parenting classes, support groups, perinatal services and child development workshops in English, Spanish and Vietnamese. The Journey Home Reunification and Relocation Program helps adults and families experiencing homelessness who want to return to family or friends outside San Francisco, coordinating travel planning, documentation and follow-up case management through a 24-hour hotline.
Justice Beyond the Sanctuary
The Center for Social Justice (CSJ), founded in 2013, takes the church's prophetic work beyond its own walls. CSJ influences public policy through grassroots organizing, education, thought leadership, policy development and legal action, and has helped secure $24 million in state funding for housing subsidies, shelters and mental health support, and $114 million for California's food banks, through coalition advocacy in recent years.
Its transformative programs include the Social Justice Academy, an 18-to-24-week project-based fellowship in which fellows with lived experience learn community-based research, advocacy and storytelling, then bring policy recommendations to Sacramento and City Hall; the Unconditional Legal Clinic, a drop-in clinic run in partnership with the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area that offers free consultation on housing discrimination, immigration, expungement and other issues and is the only free legal clinic of its kind in the area; Healers at the Gate, a three-day immersive training for healthcare workers, currently offered to UCSF medical staff, that uses a local justice pilgrimage through the Tenderloin to deepen empathy and interrupt patterns of harm to BIPOC patients; the annual Alabama Justice Pilgrimage to civil rights landmarks including the 16th Street Baptist Church, the Edmund Pettus Bridge and the Equal Justice Initiative's Legacy Museum and National Memorial for Peace and Justice; and the inaugural 2027 Ghana Justice Pilgrimage, tracing the transatlantic slave trade from Accra to Cape Coast.
The Weekday Rhythms
The church's congregational life extends far beyond Sunday morning. A wide range of small groups meets throughout the week, all open to newcomers who RSVP through the Congregational Life interest form. Bible Study meets on Tuesday evenings with the writer and preacher Zae Illo, exploring scripture through a liberation and justice lens. Prayer Circle gathers on Wednesday evenings for the live reading of the week's prayer requests. Zenkei Sangha Meditation, led by Mira Ingram and Benn Meyers, meets Mondays in person and Tuesdays and Thursdays via Zoom, with a special focus on harm-reduction meditation for the unhoused and others on the margins. SMART Recovery meets Mondays at 1 p.m. in the Maya Angelou Room; traditional Cocaine Anonymous meetings are held Mondays at 9 a.m. and Alcoholics Anonymous on Wednesdays at 11 a.m.
Yoga is offered twice weekly in the Sanctuary, on Tuesday afternoons and Thursday evenings, taught by a rotating team of volunteer teachers and described as trauma-informed, body-affirming and open to all abilities. Saturday morning brings a Pranayama breathwork session on Zoom led by Ria Tandon, while Thursday afternoons feature Burrellercise, a low-impact dance and movement class designed for seniors, elders and people with disabilities.
The Fellowship Table, part of the church's "Ministry of Presence," sets up on the sidewalk in front of 330 Ellis every Tuesday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., offering prayer, resources, hugs, listening and love. The Racial Justice Group, co-led by Paula Farmer and Freddy Martin, meets on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month to engage in organizing, education, healing circles and community conversations, including ongoing work around reparations. The White Anti-Racist Group (WAG), led by Pam Noli, gathers on the first, third and fourth Thursdays to support members working to dismantle racism at personal, local and systemic levels.
The Glide Pride Team, one of the church's signature ministries, meets on the first Sunday of each month at 1 p.m. in Room 206 to organize LGBTQ+ education, advocacy and celebration. The team has marched in the San Francisco Pride Parade and walked the SF AIDS Walk for years, and the church mounted the online exhibit "Glide Pride: Celebrating 60 Years of LGBTQIA+ Leadership, 1963-2023." Other recurring groups include Keep it Real, a Sunday afternoon recovery support group; Glide Reads, a monthly book club focused on race, class, gender, sexuality, faith and justice; the Theopoetic Series, which meets on alternate fourth Sundays in the Maya Angelou Room; the Yummy Words Monthly Workshop, a collaborative cookbook project held on Zoom on second Wednesdays; and the Spiritual Community Care Network, a trauma-informed training program that prepares community members to serve as spiritual first responders.
An Army of Volunteers
Glide runs what it describes as the largest single-site volunteer program in San Francisco. Last year more than 25,000 volunteers contributed 65,000 hours, serving meals, walking along with the Cecil Williams Community Ambassador program, staffing the Walk-In Center, assembling hygiene kits and helping with neighborhood cleanups on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. Group sizes for meal shifts go up to 25 people, and corporate, student and youth volunteer tracks are available. Volunteers must wear close-toed shoes and a shirt with sleeves; tank tops are not allowed. Youth volunteers start at age 9, with a signed waiver required for minors. The Holiday Jam, Summer Gala and other fundraisers draw additional support from across the Bay Area and beyond.
Coming to Glide
Sunday Celebrations are held at 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. at 330 Ellis Street, in the Sanctuary. Doors open early, and GLIDE Kids runs concurrently with the service for children. Both services are livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube, with phone dial-in at (855) 412-3177. The church is roughly a five-minute walk from Powell Street BART and MUNI station; street parking is metered and limited, though several nearby garages are available. The main office line is (415) 674-6000. The church office can be reached at churchoffice@glide.org or (415) 674-6090, and prayer requests can be submitted through a form on the church's site. There is no formal dress code for worship, and visitors of every background, faith tradition and identity are welcomed as a core part of who Glide is.
Leadership
Marvin K. White, the Minister of Celebration, is the church's primary preacher and liturgical voice. A writer, artist, preacher and public theologian, he holds a Master of Divinity from Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, is the author of four collections of poetry, and is a Cave Canem fellow. Zoë Ellis directs the music ministries and the Glide Ensemble. Lanie Igtanloc directs the FYCC childcare and afterschool programs. Freddy Martin serves as Congregational Life and Community Engagement Manager, coordinating the weekday groups and several special events. The Church Board of Directors, chaired by Reggie Johnson, with Laura Thompson as Secretary and Martin Soto as Treasurer, provides governance for the congregation, with honorary emeritus members including the late co-founders Rev. Cecil Williams and Janice Mirikitani. The Glide Foundation, which operates the social service programs alongside the church, is led by President and CEO Dr. Gina Fromer.