Kevin Vaughan writes:

The Saline Roadshow

‘Spirituality’ is the new buzzword in healthcare – everybody is using it but few are able to defi ne it. But a recent British Medical Journal editorial reviewed over 1,000 articles on the subject, of which over 80% showed a strong link between spirituality and health.

The Saline Solution course has been adapted by CMF for the UK in response to this growing recognition of the important link between spiritual and physical well-being and a ruling by the General Medical Council that doctors may share their faith with patients if it is done in an appropriate and sensitive way. It aims to help Christian doctors and other healthcare professionals bring their faith into the consultation effectively and appropriately.

Throughout May and June the Saline Solution roadshow visited eight locations from Edinburgh to Cardiff – and over 200 doctors attended day conferences. These included interactive sessions focusing on doctor/patient communication, spiritual therapeutics and diagnosis, and were led by Peter Saunders, Jeremy Franklin and myself. The reception has been very positive.

We have had some very valuable feedback and plan to adapt the course further prior to running a further series of day conferences in the autumn. Watch this space.

European Leadership Forum

The European Apologetics Network (now the European Leadership Forum) was launched at the Hope 21 conference in Budapest in 2002 and has just had its third annual conference from in June 2004 in Sopron, Hungary with 300 leaders from 20 countries. About 20 Christian doctors attended, mainly from the UK, but also including fi ve from Eastern Europe sponsored by CMF. Former CMF staffworker Jim Paul taught our Confi dent Christianity course whilst Student Secretary Mark Pickering ran another half day seminar on Answering Other Faiths.