Christchurch Seminars

Seminar 1

1. Finding Direction in the Early Years with a panel of registrars: Dr Sophie Meyer, Dr Garrick Edge and Dr Steph Hight

Are you considering which specialty is for you? Struggling to see how to balance faith, work, family....? Wondering what being a Christ Follower could look like in a secular workplace? This panel of registrars don’t have all the answers but they’ve worked through these same questions and will share their take on these and more. Training in a variety of specialities, they’ll share how they chose their vocational pathway and some challenges for them in their field. Some have taken time out from training and we’ll hear their stories. We anticipate that this will be of interest to students and early post-grads. There’ll be time along the way for Q&A’s.

This session is facilitated by Dr Matt Chamberlain. Click here for information about Matt and the three panelists.

2. Treating Mental Health in Me and my Community (in a Christ Way) with Dr Jeremy Baker

In this practical seminar, Jeremy Baker will lead you through some tools to help clients identify distressed emotions and emotional states and build strategies towards overcoming these. You'll find techniques which are easily applicable in the medical setting as well as beneficial for our own emotional and spiritual growth as practitioners. The tools have a technical base in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, with the Gospel at its heart.

Jeremy is a GP with a special interest in mental health and theology. One of Jeremy's tasks as clinical lead in mental health for Pegasus PHO was to deliver practical mental health courses to GPs. Subsequently he has also developed courses to train people within the churches. He is the clinical director of Deacon Trust (a mental health education provider) a PhD candidate studying the theological implications of trauma at the University of Aberdeen, and serves on the CMFnz Board.

3. Reading Gospel Stories as Health Professionals Today with Rev Dr Sarah Harris

This seminar will be a practical and explanatory discussion of the nature of healing stories. How do we translate these into today's world?

Sarah has taught New Testament Studies at Carey Baptist College since 2012. Her academic interests are the Gospel of Luke, hermeneutics, women and children in the ancient world, and social reconstruction of daily life.

Seminar 2

1. Patient-Centred Care and Moral Distress with Dr Amanda Landers

Patient-centred care is a central tenet in modern medical education. It places patient autonomy as the driving force behind medical decision-making. This is fundamentally changing the way medicine is practised and does not necessarily equate with best medical practice. Choices made by patients and their families/whānau may lead to moral distress in a practitioner. Our complex and stressed health system is under immense pressure to deliver with fewer resources. This generates a transactional culture of leadership, as opposed to a relational one. Clinicians are left with a sense of powerlessness. This seminar will define moral distress in medicine, the impact on health care teams and strategies for managing it in the workplace.

Amanda is a palliative care physician who has worked in the Christchurch, Invercargill, Wellington and Darwin communities. She is now undertaking a full-time PhD looking at models of care for people with end-stage COPD.

2. Overseas Mission: Opportunities and Privileges with panelists Rob Reynolds (SIM), Dr Helen Clark (WEC), Claire Hodgkins and Desiree Snyder (Marine Reach)

Representatives from mission agencies SIM, WEC and Marine Reach will summarise what their mission does and where, what the opportunities for medical students or graduates are for long or short term service, and the privileges and challenges of responding to Christ's call to 'go and make disciples of all nations' in overseas contexts.

Programme

Auckland Seminars

Seminar 1

1. Choosing a medical specialty with a panel of registrars

Our panel of doctors will look at the realities of their chosen specialties: the favourite parts of their job and the challenges. We’ll explore the things that surprised these trainees about their chosen specialty, the special opportunities to serve and how they chose their vocational pathway. A couple of these doctors have taken time out of their training and we’ll hear their stories about what they learnt during this time.  We anticipate this seminar will be of interest to medical students & junior doctors considering their vocational pathway.  There will be time for Q&A along the way.  This session is facilitated by Ben Thompson who knows a thing or two about the realities of medicine from being married to a doctor.

Click here for information about the five panelists.

2. Listening: The space for grace - What young people have taught me in eight years of youth health with Dr Cheryl Bollen

Cheryl has been a GP for 30 years and a Youth Health specialist GP for 8 years. She will share what the young people have taught her over the journey and some of the tools she has found helpful as she walks with them, dispensing good medical care, seasoned with grace, love and hope.

3. Reading gospel stories as health professionals today with Rev Dr Sarah Harris

 This seminar will be a practical and explanatory discussion of the nature of healing stories. How do we translate these into today's world?

Sarah has taught New Testament Studies at Carey Baptist College since 2012. Her academic interests are the Gospel of Luke, hermeneutics, women and children in the ancient world, and social reconstruction of daily life.

Seminar 2

1. Parenting and medicine with a panel of three couples

Is it possible to combine a medical career with a family in a way where both flourish?

Questions like this tend to feature prominently during coffee after ward rounds and can weigh heavy when choosing a specialty in medicine. In this seminar three couples at various stages of parenting & careers chat about how they’ve combined parenting and medicine. They’ll share the highs and lows, what they’ve learnt along the way, their favourite parenting resources and how they’ve chosen to structure their family rhythms in a way that works for them. This session is facilitated by GP Dr Helen Saunders.

Click here for information about Helen Saunders and the panelists.

2. Caring for your soul - spiritual practices, connecting with God with Dr Angelika Halstead

The great disease of our times that causes most of our individual and social troubles is “loss of soul”. Understanding the nature and needs of the soul is therefore paramount. But what exactly do we mean by “soul” and how can we embrace soulful ways of being? This seminar is based on a psycho-spiritual model and responds to these questions. It offers tools for our journey home where we live from a place of genuineness and depth and where we are divided no more.

Angelika has a background in pharmacy, education, counselling and spiritual direction. Her PhD focused on psycho-spiritual growth and transformation through therapeutic writing.

3. Overseas Mission: Opportunities and Privileges with panelists Rob Reynolds (SIM), Dr Helen Clark (WEC), Claire Hodgkins and Desiree Snyder (Marine Reach)

Representatives from mission agencies SIM, WEC and Marine Reach will summarise what their mission does and where, what the opportunities for medical students or graduates are for long or short term service, and the privileges and challenges of responding to Christ's call to 'go and make disciples of all nations' in overseas contexts.

Tuakana Support Guidelines | Tuakana Support Resources

The further I go on in life, the more convinced I am that every Christian is a struggling Christian dependent on help from brothers and sisters who know their needs and vulnerabilities. Lungs don't work without hearts, or legs without feet. We're simply not designed for solo flight." 
Rebecca McLaughlin - Confronting Christianity

Tuakana Support Guidelines

Regular Catch-ups Whether you meet together monthly or fortnightly, it's best to aim to catch up regularly. At your first catch up with, discuss what shape you'd like your time together to take. You may decide to meet for a coffee at a local cafe, church, at the hospital or your flat. At times, due to placements or time pressures, the best way to make it work may be to connect via Zoom from time-to-time. You're both busy people, and need to respect each other's time: keep your catch-ups to an hour. Plan ahead, and put dates in the diary. Moving a catch-up if need be, or connecting with a phone call, is better than finding two months have passed since you last spoke.

Prayer Come prayerfully to your time together, and make time between catch-ups to remember one another in prayer. Be alert to the Lord's work in your lives, and to the ways in which he is working and answering prayer. Whenever you meet, spend some time in prayer together. Commit the things you talk about together to the Lord in prayer, and pray for the concerns and pressures that you each are facing.

Different Approaches There will be occasions when you will simply spend time together sharing about what's 'on top' and in prayer for each other. Other times you'll dip into Scripture together, reading a Psalm, a gospel passage or an epistle together and considering the challenge and the invitation that it presents. Sometimes you'll appreciate having some resources to work through and discuss together: articles or devotionals written by Christian medical students or doctors, or Bible studies designed for medical students. See below for more on this.

Openness & Vulnerability Your sharing sets the tone for your time together: it is your vulnerability which will 'set the table' for the other to share honestly with you. You don't need to have it all together! Sharing your story and the challenges you have faced or are wrestling with invites openness and God’s grace: 'If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.' (1 John 1:7)

Laughter & Trust Remember that your time together doesn't need to be heavy and serious to be meaningful! Laughter and humour can build connection and bring much needed relief in the middle of your training. What is vital is a sense of trust and safety between you. Be clear that what is shared is shared in confidence.

Consider Wellbeing One framework for sharing together that may be helpful to you is the Māori model of hauora, or wellbeing, through the concept of te whare tapa whā. Encompassing four dimensions of health and wellbeing: taha tinana (physical wellbeing), taha hinengaro (mental and emotional wellbeing), taha whānau (social well-being) and taha wairua (spiritual wellbeing), it is a reminder of the importance of taking care of all aspects of our well-being.

A suggested structure for a mentoring session.

1. Make sure your meeting place is quiet and somewhere you are unlikely to be disturbed. A glass of water and tissues may be useful.
   
   
2. Give each other time to settle. Open with prayer, asking for wisdom.
   If it is the first session, you could each share a little about yourselves.
   
   
3. Discuss expectations and goals of mentoring if it is the first session.
   • What you are hoping to get out of the sessions: e.g. fellowship, difficult situations discussion, career advice, going through and discussing a book together etc.
   • Frequency of meetings and time: usually one hour, once every month
   • Confidentiality: an exception is if there is a risk of harm to self or others
   • Who is responsible for what: e.g. initiating meetings
   • Timely notification if cancelling a session and respect for each other’s time
     
     
4. Ask what teina/mentee would like to discuss in the session.
   If there is some hesitancy, some prompts can be helpful.
   • What have been opportunities and challenges to living out your faith in the everyday life as a medical student/doctor since we last met?
   • Are there any situations (e.g. a difficult patient interaction, a death, an interaction with a colleague) that you would like to talk about?
   • Are there specific topics or issues you would like to talk through?
   • You might also consider a different approach such as reading the Scripture together, or discussing a book or devotional together.
     
     
5. Listen well and ask appropriate questions.
   
   
6. Keep to time where possible.
   
   
7. As the meeting closes clarify goals and objectives for the next meeting. Consider presenting tasks to complete. Consider booking in a time for the next meeting before finishing.
8. Finish with prayer. You could ask ‘How can I be praying for you?’
   
   
9. Make a few notes after the session such as goals or other tasks.
   
   
10. Remember each other in between meetings and pray for each other and for the next meeting. Consider encouraging each other with messaging.

Tuakana Support Resources

CMFnz is a member organisation of the ICMDA (the International Christian Medical and Dental Association) and we're grateful to be able to share with you resources prepared by the ICMDA and two other national movements: UK's Christian Medical Fellowship and the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia. Have a look through the resources available and consider which may be useful to you.

Kindly shared with us by the Christian Medical and Dental Fellowship of Australia (CMDFA), SYNAPSE is a series of flexible Bible studies designed to spark discussion and personal reflection. Developed with medical students and graduates in mind, there are ten Synapse studies, in either a ‘mini’ 20 minute format, or a more detailed 60 minute format, to allow deeper exploration of the themes and Scriptures. 

Highly accessible, topics include Dangers of being a healthcare student: drifting and entanglement; The opportunity that being a healthcare student provides; The Lordship of Jesus Christ over everything; Your goal as a healthcare student for the year ahead.

Click here to listen to Reflect 2021 Keynote Sessions

We are excited to announce a new format to the Christian Medical Fellowship of New Zealand's Reflect Conference in 2021. This year we are running two 1-day conferences, one in Auckland on 22 May and one in Christchurch on 29 May, instead of our usual full-weekend national conference. Bringing together medical students, doctors and other health professionals from around New Zealand, Reflect 2021 will encourage and equip you to live and work wholeheartedly for Christ.

We are delighted to have Dr Sam Bloore (Senior Teaching Fellow with the Venn Foundation) joining us as keynote speaker along with Rev Dr Sarah Harris (Lecturer at Carey Baptist College) as our devotional speaker - see below for more details. Reflect 2021 will be a full day of teaching, reflection, prayer, worship, fellowship and discussion, seminars and good food, with friends and Christian colleagues from around Aotearoa New Zealand. 

As we are all too aware, NZ's COVID-19 Alert Levels can change quickly. We are preparing for an online conference under Alert Level 3 & 4 restrictions, but should conference need to be cancelled due to COVID-19, full refunds will be given. We intend that our Reflect Conferences will go ahead in person under Alert Level 2, with a cap on participants to the first 100 to register for each conference. Register soon to avoid missing out.

We certainly hope to see you in person in Auckland or Christchurch in May. Numbers are limited; register today!

The Christian Medical Fellowship in NZ arose rather informally in different parts of New Zealand back in the 1960s and 1970s, if not before. This happened largely through the very strong example and encouragement of the CMF in the United Kingdom. The pathways to training for most NZ doctors in those days was to go to the UK, get their “fellowship” and return a few years later. During that time, they were infected by the pastoral support and example of Christian doctors in the places where they worked who were often part of the local CMF. 

Consequently, groups of CMFers now transplanted back into NZ would come together, meeting to encourage each other as Christians in their medical vocations. Visits from Christian senior consultants and academics usually from the UK were keenly drawn into these gatherings to encourage and challenge these groups of doctors through fellowship but especially in sharing their biblical perspectives in health care and doctor self-care. 

A vision grew that there should be more than just this and that Christian doctors around NZ should work together as CMFnz to achieve more to support doctors in the walk and witness, to speak out nationally where needed, to support missionary doctors and to encourage the work with medical students. 

And so CMFnz came to be with a constitution, subs and a bank account. It was administered initially by a strong team in Auckland and subsequently the baton passed to Dunedin – both closely linked to Medical Schools and the work with students. 

During all this time there were continuing close relationships with the Tertiary Student Christian Fellowship (TSCF – who work amongst Christian tertiary students in NZ) and the international CMF movements especially in the UK. In 1982 we became part of the International Christian Medical and Dental Association. All these similarly committed groups provided great inspiration and some produced important resources (books, newsletters, guides, etc.) and other opportunities to grow as Christian doctors here in NZ.  

By the late 1990s some of the fire had dimmed and this prompted a relook at the vision for CMFnz into the future. A summit followed, goals reset, a medical student took a year out to become the National Secretary, a newsletter came back to life, student groups stirred afresh and a surgical registrar took on the job of student worker and represented CMFnz at the international ICMDA meeting in South Africa – all of this was in partnership with TSCF. Renewed support came in and there were plus 175 on the mailing list. God was really good. 

Come 2006 we were still just meeting out there in local groups, still being challenged, and God was still working there, but... Then there was the opportunity to join in the Sydney meeting of the ICMDA. Quite a contingent went including some students funded by members of CMFnz. This was an exciting event and out of it those who went had a real ‘God moment’ - we in NZ really did need to get together, to fellowship, to be inspired by the Word and by the Spirit. And God honoured that and the executive team in Dunedin invited Dr John Patrick from Ottawa Canada to lead our first National Conference in Queenstown. And of course, from there CMFnz took a new turn in its growing mission. 

Endowment Fund

Make a donation - Leave a gift in your will - Provide a lasting legacy

Sow into God's work in the New Zealand medical community for the future by giving to CMFnz's endowment fund. This fund exists to provide an income stream for CMFnz and its ministries for generations to come.

Doctors and medical students living wholeheartedly for Christ

The Christian Medical Fellowship of New Zealand Incorporated is a community of Christian doctors, medical students and supporters, seeking to live wholeheartedly for Christ in all areas of their lives. CMFnz provides regional support and fellowship groups, national training initiatives, mentoring and support for students and the university Christian medical student groups, undertaking advocacy initiatives and encouraging medicine as mission, in New Zealand and overseas.

The Endowment Fund

Bequests to CMFnz are invested in CMFnz's endowment fund, ensuring that income generated from your gift will support CMFnz’s work for future generations of Christian medical practitioners and medical students.  The endowment fund is not a separate legal entity but a CMFnz asset dedicated to supporting the long-term financial wellbeing of the organisation.  The fund is governed by rules that ensure it serves the long-term sustainability of CMFnz’s work (available on request). 

The fund capital is invested and only income is used for day-to-day operational expenditure.  Through bequests and one-off gifts, supporters of CMFnz are able to contribute to this capital asset.  

What your gift can do

 Support and disciple medical students in their professional and faith journeys, through strengthening the work of the University Christian groups, mentoring initiatives, and providing grants

 Resource advocacy initiatives, bringing a clear and effective Christian voice on issues relating to medicine into the public sphere

 Develop our work training medical students and doctors in Christian faith and expression through our annual Reflect conference and Saline training courses

 Strengthen the CMFnz community on a national and regional level

 Provide ongoing operational support to CMFnz

How you can donate

Make a payment via internet banking into the CMFnz Westpac endowment fund account: 
03-0883-0189563-000
Any donation intended for the endowment fund should be clearly identified as such. Please email [email protected] with your name and donation details so that a receipt can be issued to you for tax rebate purposes. 

Note, ordinary donations intended to support operational expenditure should be paid into the CMFnz general fund which is distinct from the endowment fund (click here for details). 

Bequests and Wills

A bequest is a gift made in a last will and testament. After you have provided for your family and friends, we invite you to consider leaving a bequest to enable CMFnz to continue to grow its work amongst Christian medical students and doctors in New Zealand. 

How to leave a bequest
We recommend that you contact your solicitor, accountant or financial advisor for professional advice on making or changing your will. 

Recommended wording
We suggest that you add the following wording to your will:

I give to the Christian Medical Fellowship of New Zealand Incorporated 03-0883-0189563-000 the sum of $_______ (or _____________% of my residuary estate) to be applied for its charitable purposes. I declare the receipt of the Secretary or other officer will be sufficient discharge to my Executors who will not be bound to the see the application of this gift.  

We'd love to hear from you!

We value those who give generously, participate, support and pray for the work of CMFnz in many different ways. If you have donated to the endowment fund or established a bequest in your will we thank God for this invaluable gift.

Please email us at [email protected] - we would love to be in touch with you.

How about membership for free?

If you're just getting started practising (PGY1 & 2), it doesn't hurt to get a little extra help. That's why we offer full membership to PGY1 & 2 doctors without the usual membership fee. We encourage PGY2 doctors to make a koha/donation as or when you're able, to support the work of CMFnz. 

Your Fellowship

Full membership is open to New Zealand doctors. Full members are entitled to a 10% discount on their annual National Conference registration.

All members receive CMFnz's Membership Directory which is published annually, and all members' contact details (name, email, phone, city and role/occupation) are published in the directory unless a request is made to opt out. See www.cmf.nz/privacy for more information, or contact [email protected] to opt out from being included in the directory.

Declaration of Membership

Members should be able to agree to the following declaration of membership:

I declare faith in God the Father, and in God the Son the Lord Jesus Christ who is my Saviour. I desire to be ruled by God the Holy Spirit in accordance with the Bible, the divinely appointed authority in matters of life and faith.