Photo by Noah Holm on Unsplash
Morgana Sythove (Co-coordinator) is Anglo/Dutch and lives in the Netherlands. She is a practising pagan and is a Wiccan Priestess. As International Coordinator for PFI/Pagan Federation International, she travels extensively giving talks and workshops about Wicca and Paganism.
She is also a board member of URI Netherlands and a URI Global Trustee Multiregion.
She represented PFI & URI at the Parliament of the World’s Religions/ PWR in 2004/ Barcelona, 2015/ Salt Lake City, 2018 Toronto, Virtual 2021.
Her passion is to protect and defend ‘the Living Environment’ in all its diversity and manifestations. She is still very much the activist – the Eco-warrior but also the peace-builder – as People of the Earth she believes that we have so much to offer – to support each other, to offer spiritual resilience when necessary and to speak up for all those living beings who have no voice. Unity in Community!
Steven Kramer (Co-coordinator) is an interfaith minister, a poet, and a budding artist , who encounters the Divine in all of nature, of which we are part. The forest is his cathedral and the seashore his heavenly choir. His background of having a B.S. in Biology gives him an appreciation of the intricately complex miracles we are. He has been blessed to learn from Indigenous spiritual teachers whom have been willing to share their wisdom these past 30 years. He retired from 30+ years of hospice nursing in February of 2021. He has since been involved in the Charter for Compassion. Becoming involved in the Environment Sector is part of his ministry. Mother Earth has given so much to him. He is trying to return the favor as he continue his journey. Most of all, he feels he is very much a work in progress.
Rev. Jan Chase has been the minister of Unity Church of Pomona, a New Thought Interfaith Community, since January 2003, teaching practical applications of spiritual principles to enhance health in body, mind, relationships, finances, and the community. She has been teaching stress reduction techniques for over forty years, assisting people in finding inner peace, and growing in mindful awareness.
Passionate about bringing people together in compassionate ways, Jan is currently involved in 3 local Interfaith groups and on Unity’s National Interfaith Team. She has also been a facilitator for 3 years in Conversations about Race with the Circle of Chairs working from Pilgrim Place, with NAACP, NCNW and now the Baha’is.
Active in the Parliament of the World’s Religions since 2007, Jan has attended and presented at many global and regional Parliament events. It was at the 2015 Parliament in Salt Lake City that Jan and 26 Interfaith friends from the Pomona Valley of California presenting at the Parliament first heard about the Compassionate Cities Movement and vowed to work to create compassionate cities throughout our valley. Compassionate Pomona was the first city to sign on along with our PUSD School District in early 2018. Jan has had that honor of convening an amazing group of community leaders and organizations who are shifting the consciousness of the city into heart-centered compassionate work together. Out of our Compassionate Pomona work has grown interest in Restorative Practices, SKY Breathing and Wellness Courses, Conversations with Pomona Police, Compassionate California, and now the Charter for Compassion’s RISE team.
A Medical Technologist for 30 years, living and serving on three continents, Jan uses her scientific background to enhance spiritual knowledge and teachings. Graduating from Unity School of Christianity in 2000 as an ordained Unity Minister, she was also guided to study at Claremont School of Theology, where she received a Master of Arts degree in 2016.
Jan is the mother of two grown children. Her daughter Amelia lives and teaches in Norway, her son Ben lives in Minneapolis with his wife Melissa Saldana Chase, from Mexico, and their son Alex.
Imam Jamal Rahman is a popular speaker on Islam, Sufi spirituality, and interfaith relations. Along with his Interfaith Amigos, he has been featured in the New York Times, CBS News, BBC, and various NPR programs. Jamal is co-founder and Muslim Sufi minister at Interfaith Community Sanctuary, and adjunct faculty at Seattle University and Pacific Lutheran University. He is a former co-host of Interfaith Talk Radio, and travels nationally and internationally, presenting at retreats and workshops.
He is the author of Sacred Laughter of the Sufis: Awakening the Soul with the Mullah's Comic Teaching Stories and Other Islamic Wisdom; Spiritual Gems of Islam: Insights & Practices from the Qur'an, Hadith, Rumi & Muslim Teaching Stories to Enlighten the Heart & Mind; The Fragrance of Faith: The Enlightened Heart of Islam; and coauthor of: Finding Peace Through Spiritual Practice: The Interfaith Amigos Guide to Personal, Social, and Environmental Healing; Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of Interfaith; Out of Darkness into Light: Spiritual Guidance in the Quran with Reflections from Jewish and Christian Sources; and Getting to the Heart of Interfaith: The Eye-Opening, Hope-Filled Friendship of a Pastor, a Rabbi, and an Imam. Jamal's latest book, The Teachers of Spiritual Wisdom: Gaining Perspective on Life’s Perplexing Questions is co-authored with Duncan S. Ferguson and Mary Petrina Boyd.
Jamal's passion lies in interfaith community building. He remains rooted in his Islamic tradition and cultivates a "spaciousness" by being open to the beauty and wisdom of other faiths. By authentically and appreciatively understanding other paths, Jamal feels that he becomes a better Muslim and a more developed human being. This spaciousness is not about conversion but about completion.
