Printed from: https://archive.cmf.org.uk/resources/publications/content/?context=issue&id=6069
Pablo Martinez warns how easy it is to neglect our own personal well-being. They made me take care of their vineyards, but my own vineyard I neglected.' (1) Caring for our own 'garden' (person) is not only a right. It is a duty. It is part of good stewardship. Some people never...
Peter May looks at what is involved in changing someone's mind Day by day, as doctors we try to persuade our patients about health matters, while patients and drug companies try to persuade us. As Christians, we try to persuade others...but what actually is involved in persuasion? Firstly, it is a...
Liz Mash offers practical and spiritual advice You arrive at work one morning to discover that you are the subject of a complaint. How do you feel? Angry, guilty, ashamed, worried? It is certainly not a pleasant experience. Your ability or conduct is being called into question. I can empathise....
Emma Hayward writes about the feelings of guilt and remorse that can accompany making medical mistakes and the resources available to Christians for meeting them. Why did you enter medicine? Probably at least part of the reason was to care for people. In general no health professional turns up to...
John Martin investigates global persecution of Christians today. In Pakistan, two suicide bombers secrete themselves into a Peshawar church courtyard; their deadly cargo leaves 85 dead and many more injured. In Egypt dozens of Coptic churches and homes are put to the torch in wave on wave of violence waged...
Paul Adams insists that in the care for older people there's no substitute for costly love. What will you be like in your old age? Strong to the end, or progressively failing in body or mind? Happy or sad, loved or ignored? Old age has become the new taboo topic....
'It sounds like you're depressed.' I couldn't bring myself to believe my GP's words. Me? Depressed? I had always thought of myself as a 'strong' person: someone who excelled; thrived; achieved. How could this be happening to me? I was plunged into a dark tunnel, yet riding a roller-coaster of...
Steve Fouch shows that while Christian churches and agencies play a huge role in global health, secular technocrats are leaving this out of future planning. Over the next two years the international community will be making key decisions about how the global agenda for development will be laid out. During...
Vicky Lavy shares experiences of the International Christian Medical and Dental Association. To be honest, I was never very interested in ICMDA as a medical student and junior doctor – a shocking confession for the (now) Head of International Ministries. ICMDA is the umbrella body that links up Christian medical...
Alister McGrath Hodder & Stoughton, 2013 £2 Hb 448pp, ISBN 9781444745528 Reviewed by Giles Cattermole, CMF Head of Student Ministries Author, apologist, academic. McGrath's excellent biography of CS Lewis shows us the man behind these three faces. A man shaped by his childhood in Ulster and in English schools before...
Michael Allen Rogers Crossway, 2013 £12.00 Pb 256pp, ISBN 9781433533020 Reviewed by Robin Fisher Michael Rogers tackles this vast subject with biblical rigour, while maintaining a light touch. He moves easily from the deep horror of hell to the unspeakably great joy of eternity with God. He does not gloss...
Tony Phelps-Jones and other contributors BRF, 2013 £7.99 Pb 144pp, ISBN 9780857461575 Reviewed by Ruth Eardley The front cover says it all: a big 'WELCOME!' but the red carpet stops just short of the steep stone step at the entrance. The door in the grey Norman arch is only half ajar (will...
Sharon Dirckx IVP, 2013 £8.99 Pb 176pp, ISBN 9781844746194 Reviewed by Laurence Crutchlow, a London GP and CMF Associate Head of Student Ministries It is all too easy to reduce suffering to an intellectual question, forgetting that the questioner is very often dealing with a deep personal hurt that is behind what...
Nick Spencer and Denis Alexander Theos, 2009 £10.00 Pb 63pp, ISBN 0955445353 Reviewed by Mark Pickering, a Yorkshire prison GP Rescuing Darwin. A noble thought. But from whom, and to what purpose? The authors attempt to dispel notions of Darwin being anti-religious, by charting his painful journey into agnosticism. They...
Glynn Harrison IVP, 2013 £9.99 Pb 224pp, ISBN 9781844746200 Reviewed by Evelyn Sharpe, a Consultant Psychiatrist Since the 1960s, attempts to boost self-esteem have become part of our culture, but it has become evident, as Glynn Harrison says, that 'self-esteem ideology promised much but delivered small'. Dr Harrison, an Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, describes...
Richard Scott Wilberforce Publications, 2013 £7.29 Pb 200 pp, ISBN 978095752515 Reviewed by John Martin, CMF Head of Communications In 2009 at a CMF conference Richard Scott heard four Christian doctors and nurses who had run into trouble with their professional organisations. He left with five words ringing in his ears:...
Penelope Wilcock BRF, 2013 £9.99, Pb 112pp, ISBN 9780281048779 Reviewed by Valerie Rowe, a Consultant in Palliative Care Books on 'Spiritual Care' are often theoretical but not this one. It is about people. It is intensely real as the cost of fulfilling a patient's request to 'be there' ( 'watch...
Divorcing love from morality We might assume that all those who identify as Christians in Britain share similar and predictable views on topical ethical issues. We would be wrong. Author Richard Dawkins' Foundation for Reason and Science (UK) found in a poll published in 2012 (1) that, of those who...
India's baby factory industry The BBC reports that commercial surrogacy is an industry worth $1bn a year in India. It spotlighted the activities of a controversial Indian medic, Dr Nayna Patel, who has built a multi-million pound complex in rural Gujarat. Rich couples from the West stay in plush accommodation...
Dimity Grant-Frost thinks about our motivation to serve. While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, 'Lord, if you are willing, you can make me...
Failures of care suggest a deeper problem Review by Steve Fouch CMF Head of Allied Professions Ministries The recent report from the Care Quality Commission on Colchester General Hospital (1) adds to the depressing list of reports on failures in the NHS. This latest episode related to the falsification...
New anti-euthanasia coalition launched Review by Peter Saunders CMF Chief Executive A new coalition was launched in Brussels on Wednesday 13 November 2013 to combat the growing threat of euthanasia across Europe. The Euthanasia Prevention Coalition Europe (EPC-Europe) (1) draws together organisations and individuals from across the continent. Dr Kevin...
Faith is not disappearing Review by John Martin CMF Head of Communications The British Humanist Association used to be a bit of a joke. In recent years, however, its forays into the marketplace of ideas have become much more venomous. What we should never accuse it of is lack...
Is this the way forward? As international discussions move forward on the new round of global development goals due to come into effect after 2015, (1) the debate has become increasingly heated over the concept of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). (2) The principle – that everyone should have access to...
