the CMF podcast

As medical technology advances and the values at the heart of our society change, health professionals can often find their own values clashing with the demands of clinical specialties and employers. Whether that is being involved with abortions, new fertility technologies, or end of life care decisions, we may all, regardless of faith or other beliefs and values, find ourselves asking 'shoul...

The treatment of people fleeing war, persecution and poverty has had a lot of coverage in the news and has been a major issue in referendums and elections in the UK and other nations for many years.  Is this an issue that should concern us, both as Christians and health professionals? What are the issues, and how do we address them?  In this episode, Steve Fouch will be talking with Dr Becky McFar...

In this edition, Dr John Greenall discusses with Dr Pete Carter of Heaven in Healthcare a diverse range of topics about health, healing, and how our understanding of heaven and what it means to be whole in Christ affects our attitudes towards medicine, miracles and God's healing in our lives. We also talk about disappointment when fervent prayers for healing seem not to be answered, and about...

Over the last three weeks, 1st incision has presented the main talks from the 2021 CMF National Conference on 24 April. In last week's episode, Mark Greene of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity looked at how we can live as a whole-life disciples of Jesus, shaping the culture in the everyday world.   In this, the final talk in the series, he asks why we so often think that what...

 In this week's episode from the 2021 CMF National Conference on 24 April, Mark Green of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity looks at how a whole life Christian discipleship may shape our life and practice in the every day. Looking at the story of Ruth (particularly chapter 2, v1-16), he explores how faithfulness to Christ leads us to simple steps and outworking Christlike valu...

Over the next three weeks, 1st incision will be presenting the main talks from the 2021 CMF National Conference on 24 April. Last week's episode was the plenary address by Florence Muindi. This week, drawing from Acts 27, in the first of his talks, Mark Greene of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity, looks at how our discipleship in Christ can have a very concrete impact on how...

At this year's CMF National Conference on 24 April, Florence Muindi of Life in Abundance International, based in Kenya, gave the plenary address.  Looking at the past year, she explores how the church and the Christian medical community has, along with the rest of the world, been in a disaster response mode as the COVID-19 pandemic has affected every nation.  Her inspiring address looks at wh...

In this episode we'll endeavour to answer the question, what is a Parish Nurse? You may have asked that question yourself in the past, or you may have never heard the term before. If you have never come across the term, I am speaking today with two Parish Nurses, Cath Carter, based in St Andrews, Scotland, and Gillian Fenner, based in Wolverhampton, England, about their two, very different pa...

Vaccines are very much in the news at the moment, but they have been around for over a hundred and fifty years. They may have done more to transform health than any other single measure other than access to clean water during that time. Yet there has always been a suspicion in part of the population that vaccines are not a good thing, varying from concern and hesitancy to outright opposition. And...

The front of the frontline of the NHS is the ambulance service. They are the first responders, on the scene dealing with incidents up and down the country. With COVID-19 adding to the usual pressures they face this winter, the pressures on these skilled crews is greater than at any time. Last November, in the midst of the second lockdown in England, I spoke with Simon King, founder of the Christia...

We all like to feel that we are seen as being of worth and value to others - that we are appreciated and treated with dignity and consideration. In medical literature and the social sciences, the idea of human dignity has become very prominent. But what actually is 'dignity' - what determines if someone has dignity or not. Is dignity innate, or a something that is given. And if it is giv...

In the last few weeks, we have been hearing some exciting news about vaccines for COVID-19, with at least three showing signs of being very effective at preventing infection and one now licensed for use here in the UK. Could this be the 'magic bullet' that will take us out of the COVID crisis?  But is there another side to the story? Will everyone have access to a vaccine, and will all o...

This year, 2020, has been designated by the World Health Organization as the ' Year of the Nurse and the Midwife '. Nursing and midwifery are the backbones of most healthcare systems around the world, yet when surveyed they often seem a demoralised and undervalued part of most health services. On top of that, 2020 has been the year of COVID-19, and maybe, as a result, we have all seen a...

Despite everything else in the headlines at the moment, climate change is still one of the biggest stories. It is a subject that evokes strong feelings. Many argue that there is no climate change and it is a grand hoax and a conspiracy; others claim it is a natural phenomenon and nothing to do with human activity, while others point out that the science is incontrovertible. Often this debate gener...

 We've all experienced this. You are sitting in the staff room, and someone starts to tell a story about a colleague, a patient or one of the managers, and before you know it everyone is sharing gossip. We even see this happening in churches, although here it is more likely to be called 'sharing prayer news'. Is this just harmless banter, or is there a more dangerous side to it? And...

In today's episode, we are going to look at the vexed issue of assisted suicide and euthanasia in conversation with Dr Paul Saba, a family physician from Montreal, Canada. Paul has actively fought to stop the legalisation of euthanasia in Canada for many years. In his latest book, ' Made to live ' he passionately lays out the case for why euthanasia is an abandonment of patients at...

Mark Twain once said there are only two certainties in life; death and taxes. Caring for those nearing the end of life is an important part of healthcare and one that has come to the fore in recent months. In this edition, we are talking to Idris Baker about some of the issues and ethics in the care of people nearing the end of their lives, and in particular how COVID-19 has had an impact on that...

Over the last six months or so there has been an outpouring of love for the NHS and the staff who provide care and support to us. We've all be out there clapping and putting up rainbows in a sign of support and solidarity. But not everyone who is treated in the NHS or works in it has such a positive experience. The colour of your skin can determine how you get treated, both as a patient and a...

Over 4,000 people in the UK are in need of a kidney transplant. The kidney is one of the few organs that can be transplanted relatively safely from a live donor. But for the majority of those on the waiting list for a new kidney, the wait will depend on someone with healthy kidneys dying, and that wait can last years. Joseph Walsh has a story to tell about his own involvement with kidney transplan...

The outbreak of COVID-19 has had a huge impact on the healthcare systems of virtually every country on earth, and the UK has been no exception. A massive mobilisation and reorganisation of the British National Health Service (NHS) to address the challenges we were facing from this new and still poorly understood disease happened in weeks. And in the midst of this mass reorganisation, a lot of thin...

In the last episode of season three of 1st incision, we look back at some of the ways Christian Medical Fellowship has been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, and at some of the resources and support for health professionals that is still available. We're taking a break for the summer, but we'll be back in the autumn with a fresh series of interviews and discussions at the interface of...

The Christian faith stands or falls on the miracle of Jesus' resurrection. But how do we stand in relation to miracles today, especially as health professionals? Do miraculous healings still happen, can we command them, and how we handle situations where our patients claim to have been healed? David Randall talks with Steve Fouch about how we can engage with the miraculous as Christians and h...

Anne Biro, the Vice-President of Nurses Christian Fellowship International (NCFI) talks with Steve Fouch about how Christian nurses in the UK and in many other nations are connecting together to encourage, teach and train each other during 2020, the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife (you can read more about this at https://cmf.li/36c3WUy and about the 200th anniversary of the birth o...

In our fortieth and final voices from the frontline, we talk to Audrey, an intensivist at a Glasgow intensive care unit. At the sharp end of dealing with COVID-19, she and her team have been working longer hours, with trainees and non-specialists taking on new roles caring for those most seriously affected by the disease. How have she and her team handled the remarkable circumstances in which they...

Esther is a community-based pharmacist, working closely with general practices. With social distancing and shielding, normal dispensing of medicines has changed considerably. What are the challenges, changes and stresses that pharmacy staff facing during lockdown. How is she finding spiritual support, and how can we pray for Esther and other pharmacists and frontline workers at this time. Esther i...