Voices of Faith Forum' slated Sunday evening

By the Daily Facts

REDLANDS The Redlands Area Interfaith Council will hold its first "Voices of Faith Forum" Sunday, March 16, at 7 p.m. at Redlands First United Methodist Church, 1 E. Olive Ave.

People of all faiths are invited to attend the forum, hosted by First United Methodist Church and Mentone Congregational United Church of Christ.

The topic for this Sunday's forum is "How Does Our Faith Influence Our Daily Life?" The program will include four 10-minute talks by representatives from four Redlands area congregations, followed by a question-and-answer period. The evening will conclude with refreshments and fellowship.

The mission of the Redlands Area Interfaith Council (RAIC) is to bring together people from the various religious communities in Redlands for the purposes of understanding the religious values that unite them, recognizing and honoring their diversity, increasing mutual respect of all faiths within the community, cooperating with one another and celebrating and serving together to increase the livability and peace of the Redlands area and the world.

The four speakers are Sarah Elder, Janice A. Yellon, Susan Cobb and Jonathan Kamrava.

Sarah Elder, director of Christian Initiation at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Redlands, was born in London, England, and earned her doctorate from Oxford University. In 1982 she married Gregory Elder, who writes a religion column for the Redlands Daily Facts, and came to the United States. She is an assistant visiting professor at the University of California, Riverside. She and her husband have two children, Mary and William, in the 11th and eighth grades.

Janice Yellon is youth director and ritual chair of Congregation Etz Hadar, a conservative Jewish congregation in Redlands. She earned her bachelor's degree in biology from the University of Michigan in 1982 and converted to Judaism in 1985. She is married to Steven Yellon, and their family is one of the founding families of Etz Hadar.

She is an independent manufacturers' representative for David Schnur Associates and is a recent founder and president of Time for Words, a consulting firm.

She is a member of Haddasah, a Jewish women's philanthropic organization, and has recently attended IMUN (faith), a conference for para-rabbinical and cantorial skills. At Etz Hadar, she leads services, reads from the Torah and trains Bar Mitzvah and Bat Mitzvah students.

She and her husband have two children, Shayna, 14, and Ross, 12.

Susan Cobb of San Clemente has been a Christian Science practitioner since 1990 and is an authority on the life and work of Mary Baker Eddy, founder of Christian Science.

In the 1980s she was a chaplain for the Orange County detention system, providing spiritual help to inmates. She is now a professional, full-time spiritual healer and travels extensively throughout North America, speaking on spiritually related issues and conducting workshops for those interested in prayer and healing from a spiritual perspective.

Jonathan Kamrava, a graduate of Redlands High School, is an elected member of the Spiritual Assembly, an administrative assembly for the Baha'i Faith of Redlands. Kamrava, 24, was raised in the Baha'i Faith and has traveled extensively. He was recently invited to teach about the beliefs of the Baha'i Faith in Russia and India.

He is attending Riverside Community College, majoring in physics.Voices of Faith Forum' slated Sunday evening

Following is the URL to the original story. The site may have removed or archived this story. URL: http://www.redlandsdailyfacts.com/Stories/0,1413,209~22484~1236624,00.html