CMDFA National Conference Healing in mind, body and spirit

Who is Jesus?

As Rikk Watts, our key conference speaker, started the weekend describing Jesus, my faith and perspective started to enlarge – Jesus defeated Satan, He forgives sins, He is Lord of the Sabbath, He is our Creator, our Redeemer and our Healer – in an awe-inspiring Trinity who is all-powerful and sovereign.

A Healing of the Healers

As a fellowship of doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, every CMDFA conference is always refreshing as we gather, learn, reflect, and encourage one another. It’s also a time of being intentional in our own healing. The electives were a reminder to identify areas of burnout, refocus priorities, spend time with God and hear His voice. In dealing with our own brokenness, hurt and trauma, we are better equipped to help others in their journey towards healing with a more loving, merciful and compassionate response to those who are hurting.

What does Healing in Mind, Body and Spirit look like?

One of the emerging strengths of our fellowship is joining together as a medical community with nurses, allied health professionals, chaplains and other Christians in healthcare to enhance our understanding of this question.

Dr Megan Best and Dr Maria Cigolini together stretched our understanding of spirituality – “a dynamic and intrinsic aspect of humanity through which persons seek ultimate meaning, purpose and transcendence, and experience relationship to self, family, others, community, society, nature and the significant or sacred” (The Global Network for Spirituality and Health, 2014). The extension of this is in how we encourage our patients to express their spirituality through their beliefs, values, traditions and practices. The bigger challenge for ourselves is when their spirituality looks different to our Christian worldview and walking beside them in their journey towards healing. The practice of guided meditation brought a new and deeper level of understanding in helping patients who are in deep distress.

A Healthy Family

As I reflect on my twenty years of being a member of CMDFA, I am thankful for a healthy fellowship, where our fellowship has become like family and conferences feel more like family reunions. There is also a maturity in a healthy family in Christ where love abounds and there is a deep respect for one another that allows us to disagree and yet stay at the table of discussion.

Over the whole weekend, I was grateful for countless conversations covering ethical matters, end of life issues, abortion, Indigenous reconciliation, and a deep desire to see God’s healing hand upon our nation, all discussed as a family in Christ.