John Hancock Sovereign Bond Fund (the “Trust”)

     John Hancock Bond Fund (the “Fund”)

Supplement dated April 21, 2009 to the current Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”)

On April 16, 2009, at a special meeting, the shareholders of the Fund approved proposals to: (1) elect the Trust’s Trustees; and (2) revise the Trust’s Declaration of Trust to permit mergers of affiliated funds without a shareholder vote in certain circumstances.

The following sections amend, and in certain cases supersede, the corresponding disclosure sections in the SAI.

THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR MANAGEMENT

The following replaces the disclosure in this section relating to the Board.

The business of the Fund is managed by its Trustees, including certain Trustees who are not “interested persons” (as defined by the 1940 Act), of the Fund or the Trust (the “Independent Trustees”), who elect officers who are responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Fund and who execute policies formulated by the Board. Several of the officers and Trustees of the Trust are also officers or Directors of the Adviser, or officers and Directors of the Fund’s principal distributor, John Hancock Funds, LLC (“John Hancock Funds” or the “Distributor”).

Interested Trustees

			Number of Funds in
	Position		John Hancock Fund
Name (Birth	with the	Principal Occupation(s) and Other Directorships	Complex Overseen by
Year)	Trust	During the Past 5 Years	Trustee
James R. Boyle(1) (1959)	Trustee (since 2005)	Executive Vice President, MFC (since 1999); Director and President, John Hancock Variable Life Insurance Company (since 2007); Director and Executive Vice President, John Hancock Life Insurance Company (“JHLICO”) (since 2004); Chairman and Director, JHA, The Berkeley Financial Group, LLC (“The Berkeley Group”) (holding company) and the Distributor (since 2005); Chairman and Director, John Hancock Investment Management Services, LLC (“JHIMS”) (since 2006); Senior Vice President, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (U.S.A) (until 2004).(2)		268
John G. Vrysen(1) (1955)	Trustee (since 2009) Chief Operating Officer (since 2005)	Senior Vice President, MFC (since 2006); Director, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, John Hancock Investment Management Services, LLC (“JHIMS”), The Berkeley Group, JHIMS, and the Distributor (since 2007); Chief Operating Officer, JHF, JHF II, JHF III and JHT (since 2007); Director, John Hancock Signature Services, Inc. (“Signature Services”) (since 2005); Chief Financial Officer, the Adviser, The Berkeley Group, MFC Global Investment Management (US), JHIMS, John Hancock Funds, LLC, JHF, JHF II, JHF III and JHT (2005-2007); Vice President, MFC (until 2006).		50

⁽¹⁾ The Trustee is an Interested Trustee due to his position with the Adviser and certain of its affiliates.

⁽²⁾ Prior to January 1, 2005, JHLICO (U.S.A.) was named The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company (U.S.A.).

Independent Trustees
			Number of
			Funds in John
			Hancock Fund
	Position(s)		Complex
Name	with the	Principal Occupation(s) and Other Directorships During	Overseen by
(Birth Year)	Trust	the Past 5 Years	Trustee
James F. Carlin (1940)	Trustee (since 2005)	Director and Treasurer, Alpha Analytical Laboratories (chemical analysis) (since 1985); Part Owner and Treasurer, Lawrence Carlin Insurance Agency, Inc. (since 1995); Part Owner and Vice President, Mone Lawrence Carlin Insurance Agency, Inc. (until 2005); Chairman and CEO, Carlin Consolidated, Inc. (management/investments) (since 1987); Trustee, Massachusetts Health and Education Tax Exempt Trust (1993-2003).		50
William H. Cunningham (1944)	Trustee (since 2005)	Professor, University of Texas, Austin, Texas (since 1971); former Chancellor, University of Texas System and former President of the University of Texas, Austin, Texas; Chairman and CEO, IBT Technologies (until 2001); Director of the following: Hicks Acquisition Company 1, Inc. (since 2007); Hire.com (until 2004), STC Broadcasting, Inc. and Sunrise Television Corp. (until 2001), Symtx, Inc.(electronic manufacturing) (since 2001), Adorno/Rogers Technology, Inc. (until 2004), Pinnacle Foods Corporation (until 2003), rateGenius (until 2003), Lincoln National Corporation (insurance) (since 2006), Jefferson-Pilot Corporation (diversified life insurance company) (until 2006), New Century Equity Holdings (formerly Billing Concepts) (until 2001), eCertain (until 2001), ClassMap.com (until 2001), Agile Ventures (until 2001), AskRed.com (until 2001), Southwest Airlines (since 2000), Introgen (manufacturer of biopharmaceuticals) (since 2000) and Viasystems Group, Inc. (electronic manufacturer) (until 2003); Advisory Director, Interactive Bridge, Inc. (college fundraising) (until 2001); Advisory Director, Q Investments (until 2003); Advisory Director, JP Morgan Chase Bank (formerly Texas Commerce Bank — Austin), LIN Television (until 2008), WilTel Communications (until 2003) and Hayes Lemmerz International, Inc. (diversified automotive parts supply company) (since 2003).		50
Deborah Jackson (1952)	Trustee (since 2008)	Chief Executive Officer, American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay (since 2002); Board of Directors of Eastern Bank Corporation (since 2001); Board of Directors of Eastern Bank Charitable Foundation (since 2001); Board of Directors of American Student Association Corp. (since 1996); Board of Directors of Boston Stock Exchange (2002-2008); Board of Directors of Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare (since 2007).		50

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Independent Trustees
			Number of
			Funds in John
			Hancock Fund
	Position(s)		Complex
Name	with the	Principal Occupation(s) and Other Directorships During	Overseen by
(Birth Year)	Trust	the Past 5 Years	Trustee
Charles L. Ladner (1938)	Trustee (since 2004)	Chairman and Trustee, Dunwoody Village, Inc. (retirement services) (since 2008); Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, UGI Corporation (public utility holding company) (retired 1998); Vice President and Director for AmeriGas, Inc. (retired 1998); Director of AmeriGas Partners, L.P.(gas distribution) (until 1997); Director, EnergyNorth, Inc. (until 1995); Director, Parks and History Association (until 2005).		50
Stanley Martin (1947)	Trustee (since 2008)	Senior Vice President/Audit Executive, Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (2004-2006); Executive Vice President/Consultant, HSBC Bank USA (2000-2003); Chief Financial Officer/Executive Vice President, Republic New York Corporation & Republic National Bank of New York (1998-2000); Partner, KPMG LLP (1971-1998).		50
Patti McGill Peterson (1943)	Trustee (since 2001) Chairperson (since 2008)	Principal, PMP Globalinc (consulting) (since 2007); Senior Associate, Institute for Higher Education Policy (since 2007); Executive Director, CIES (international education agency) (until 2007); Vice President, Institute of International Education (until 2007); Senior Fellow, Cornell University Institute of Public Affairs, Cornell University (1997-1998); Former President Wells College, St. Lawrence University and the Association of Colleges and Universities of the State of New York. Director of the following: Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation (until 2003); Security Mutual Life (insurance) (until 1997); ONBANK (until 1993). Trustee of the following: Board of Visitors, The University of Wisconsin, Madison (since 2007); Ford Foundation, International Fellowships Program (until 2007); UNCF, International Development Partnerships (until 2005); Roth Endowment (since 2002); Council for International Educational Exchange (since 2003).		50
John A. Moore (1939)	Trustee (since 2001)	President and Chief Executive Officer, Institute for Evaluating Health Risks, (nonprofit institution) (until 2001); Senior Scientist, Sciences International (health research) (until 2003); Former Assistant Administrator & Deputy Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency; Principal, Hollyhouse (consulting) (since 2000); Director, CIIT Center for Health Science Research (nonprofit research) (until 2007).		50

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Independent Trustees
			Number of
			Funds in John
			Hancock Fund
	Position(s)		Complex
Name	with the	Principal Occupation(s) and Other Directorships During	Overseen by
(Birth Year)	Trust	the Past 5 Years	Trustee
Steven R. Pruchansky (1944)	Trustee (since 2005) Vice Chairman (since 2008)	Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Greenscapes of Southwest Florida, Inc. (since 2000); Director and President, Greenscapes of Southwest Florida, Inc. (until 2000); Member, Board of Advisors, First American Bank (since 2008); Managing Director, Jon James, LLC (real estate) (since 2000); Director, First Signature Bank & Trust Company (until 1991); Director, Mast Realty Trust (until 1994); President, Maxwell Building Corp. (until 1991).		50
Gregory A. Russo (1949)	Trustee (since 2009)	Vice Chairman, Risk & Regulatory Matters, KPMG, LLC (“KPMG”) (2002-2006); Vice Chairman, Industrial Markets, KPMG (1998-2002).		50

Correspondence intended for any of the Trustees may be sent to the attention of the individual Trustee or to the Board at 601 Congress Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02210. All communications addressed to a Board or individual Trustee will be logged and sent to the Board or individual Trustee.

Duties of Trustees; Board Meetings and Board Committees

The Trust is organized as a Massachusetts business trust. Under the Trust’s Declaration of Trust, the Trustees are responsible for managing the affairs of the Trust, including the appointment of advisers and subadvisers. The Trustees may appoint officers who assist in managing its day-to-day affairs. The Board met seven times during the Trust’s last fiscal year.

As of January 2009, the Board had six standing committees: the Audit Committee; the Compliance Committee; the Nominating, Governance and Administration Committee; Investment Performance Committee A; Investment Performance Committee B; and the Contracts/Operations Committee.

The current membership of each committee is set forth below. As Chairperson of the Board, Ms. McGill Peterson is considered an ex officio member of each committee and, therefore, is able to attend and participate in any committee meeting, as appropriate.

		Nominating,
		Governance and	Investment	Investment
Audit	Compliance	Administration	Performance A	Performance B	Contracts/Operations
Mr. Cunningham	Mr. Carlin	All Independent	Ms. Jackson	Mr. Carlin	Mr. Ladner
Ms. Jackson	Mr. Russo	Trustees	Mr. Ladner	Mr. Cunningham	Dr. Moore
Mr. Martin			Mr. Martin	Dr. Moore	Mr. Pruchansky
			Mr. Pruchansky	Mr. Russo

Prior to January 2009, the Board had four standing committees: the Audit and Compliance Committee; the Governance Committee; the Investment Performance Committee; and the Contracts/Operations Committee. During the last fiscal year, the Governance Committee held two meetings and each of these other Committees met four times.

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Audit Committee. All of the members of this Committee are independent, and each member is financially literate with at least one having accounting or financial management expertise. The Board has adopted a written charter for the Committee. This Committee recommends to the full Board independent registered public accounting firms for the Fund, oversees the work of the independent registered public accounting firm in connection with the Fund’s audit, communicates with the independent registered public accounting firm on a regular basis and provides a forum for the independent registered public accounting firm to report and discuss any matters it deems appropriate at any time.

Compliance Committee. The primary role of this Committee is to oversee the activities of the Trust’s Chief Compliance Officer; the implementation and enforcement of the Trust’s compliance policies and procedures; and compliance with the Trust’s and the Independent Trustees’ Codes of Ethics.

Nominating, Governance and Administration Committee. This Committee is comprised of all of the Independent Trustees. This Committee reviews the activities of the other standing committees and makes the final selection and nomination of candidates to serve as Independent Trustees. The Interested Trustees and the officers of the Trust are nominated and selected by the Board.

In reviewing a potential nominee and in evaluating the renomination of current Independent Trustees, this Committee will generally apply the following criteria: (i) the nominee’s reputation for integrity, honesty and adherence to high ethical standards; (ii) the nominee’s business acumen, experience and ability to exercise sound judgments; (iii) a commitment to understand the Fund and the responsibilities of a trustee of an investment company; (iv) a commitment to regularly attend and participate in meetings of a Board and its committees; (v) the ability to understand potential conflicts of interest involving management of the Fund and to act in the interests of all shareholders; and (vi) the absence of a real or apparent conflict of interest that would impair the nominee’s ability to represent the interests of all the shareholders and to fulfill the responsibilities of an Independent Trustee. This Committee does not necessarily place the same emphasis on each criteria and each nominee may not have each of these qualities.

It is the intent of this Committee that at least one Independent Trustee be an “audit committee financial expert” as defined by the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”).

As long as an existing Independent Trustee continues, in the opinion of this Committee, to satisfy these criteria, the Trust anticipates that the Committee would favor the renomination of an existing Independent Trustee rather than a new candidate. Consequently, while the Committee will consider nominees recommended by shareholders to serve as Independent Trustees, this Committee may only act upon such recommendations if there is a vacancy on the Board or a committee determines that the selection of a new or additional Independent Trustee is in the best interests of the Fund. In the event that a vacancy arises or a change in Board membership is determined to be advisable, this Committee will, in addition to any shareholder recommendations, consider candidates identified by other means, including candidates proposed by members of this Committee. This Committee may retain a consultant to assist it in a search for a qualified candidate, and did so in 2008. The Committee has adopted Procedures for the Selection of Independent Trustees.

Any shareholder recommendation for Independent Trustee must be submitted in compliance with all of the pertinent provisions of Rule 14a-8 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, to be considered by this Committee. In evaluating a nominee recommended by a shareholder, this Committee, in addition to the criteria discussed above, may consider the objectives of the shareholder in submitting that nomination and whether such objectives are consistent with the interests of all shareholders. If the Board determines to include a shareholder’s candidate among the slate of nominees, the candidate’s name will be placed on the Fund’s proxy card. If this Committee or the Board determines not to include such candidate among the Board’s designated nominees and the shareholder has satisfied the requirements of Rule 14a-8, the shareholder’s candidate will be treated as a nominee of the shareholder who originally nominated the candidate. In that case, the candidate will not be named on the proxy card distributed with the Fund’s Proxy Statement.

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Shareholders may communicate with the members of the Board as a group or individually. Any such communication should be sent to the Board or an individual Trustee c/o The Secretary of the Trust at the following address: 601 Congress Street, Boston, Massachusetts 02210-2805. The Secretary may determine not to forward any letter to the members of the Board that does not relate to the business of the Fund.

Investment Performance Committees A and B. Each such Committee monitors and analyzes the performance of the Fund generally, consults with the Adviser as necessary if the Fund requires special attention, and reviews peer groups and other comparative standards as necessary.

Contracts/Operations Committee. This Committee oversees the initiation, operation, and renewal of the various contracts between the Fund and other entities. These contracts include advisory and subadvisory agreements, custodial and transfer agency agreements and arrangements with other service providers.

Compensation of Trustees

The Trust pays fees only to its Independent Trustees. Trustees are reimbursed for travel and other out-of-pocket expenses. The following table shows the compensation paid to each Independent Trustee for his or her service as a Trustee for the most recent fiscal year. In this table, the amount shown for each of Ms. Jackson, Mr. Martin and Mr. Russo is “None” since each of these individuals began service as a Trustee after the end of the Trust’s last fiscal year.

Independent Trustee Compensation

Independent Trustee	Trust		John Hancock Fund Complex*
Carlin	$	6,463	$	260,834
Cunningham	$	5,335	$	157,500
Jackson		None	$	34,750
Ladner	$	5,334	$	162,500
Martin		None	$	51,960
McGill Peterson	$	5,334	$	157,500
Moore	$	6,588	$	212,000
Pruchansky	$	6,588	$	203,500
Russo		None		None

* The Trust does not have a pension or retirement plan for any of its Trustees or officers. The Trust participates in the John Hancock Deferred Compensation Plan for Independent Trustees (the “Plan”). Under the Plan, an Independent Trustee may elect to have his or her deferred fees invested in shares of one or more funds in the John Hancock Fund Complex and the amount paid to the Independent Trustees under the Plan will be determined based upon the performance of such investments. Deferral of Trustees’ fees does not obligate the Trust to retain the services of any Trustee or obligate the Trust to pay any particular level of compensation to the Trustee. Under these circumstances, the Trustee is not the legal owner of the underlying shares, but does participate in any positive or negative return on those shares to the same extent as all other shareholders. As of December 31, 2008, the value of the aggregate accrued deferred compensation amount from all funds in the John Hancock Fund Complex for Mr. Cunningham was $155,441; Mr. Ladner was $71,250; Ms. McGill Peterson was $112,504; Dr. Moore was $209,776; and Mr. Pruchansky was $255,930 under the Plan.

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Trustee Ownership of Shares of the Fund

The table below sets forth the dollar range of the value of the shares of the Fund, and the dollar range of the aggregate value of the shares of all funds in the John Hancock Fund Complex overseen or to be overseen by a Trustee, owned beneficially by each Trustee as of December 31, 2008. The current value of the funds that the participating Independent Trustees have selected under the Plan is included in this table. For purposes of this table, beneficial ownership is defined to mean a direct or indirect pecuniary interest. Exact dollar amounts of securities held are not listed in the table. Rather, the ranges are identified according to the following key:

A-$0
B -$1 up to and including $10,000
C -$10,001 up to and including $50,000
D -$50,001 up to and including $100,000
E -$100,001 or more

Fund/Trustee	Boyle	Carlin	Cunningham	Jackson	Ladner	Martin	McGill Peterson	Moore	Pruchansky	Russo	Vrysen
Bond	A	B	A	A	B	A	C	C	A	A	B
John Hancock Fund Complex	E	E	E	B	E	C	E	E	E	C	E

DESCRIPTION OF THE FUND’S SHARES

The following supplements the disclosure in this section of the SAI and is added after the end of the eighth paragraph.

The Trust’s Declaration of Trust also provides that the Board may approve the merger of the Fund with an affiliated mutual fund without shareholder approval, in accordance with the 1940 Act. This provision will permit mergers of affiliated funds without shareholder approval in certain circumstances to reduce the incurring the expense of soliciting proxies when a combination does not raise significant issues for shareholders. For example, this provision would permit the combination of two small funds having the same portfolio managers, the same investment objectives and the same fee structure in order to achieve economies of scale and thereby reduce fund expenses borne by shareholders. Such a merger will still require each fund’s board (including a majority of the independent trustees) to determine that the merger is in the best interests of the combining funds and will not dilute the interest of existing shareholders. The Trustees will evaluate any and all information reasonably necessary to make their determination and consider and give appropriate weight to all pertinent factors in fulfilling the overall duty of care owed to shareholders.

Shareholders of an acquired fund will still be required to approve a combination that would result in a change in a fundamental investment policy, a material change to the terms of an advisory agreement, the institution of or an increase in Rule 12b-1 fees or when the board of the surviving fund does not have a majority of independent trustees who were elected by its shareholders. Under Massachusetts law, shareholder approval is not required for fund mergers, consolidation or sales of assets. Shareholder approval nevertheless will be obtained for combinations of affiliated funds when required by the 1940 Act. Shareholder approval will also be obtained for combinations with unaffiliated funds when deemed appropriate by the Trustees.

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