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| CNM Delegation - L to R Rose Ball, Tim James, Liz Capper, Steve Fouch and Sue Allen |
Try imagining what 300 voices singing and praying in dozens
of different language sounds like.
Beautiful and strange, but it is, I think, a faint foreshadowing of what
it will be like in eternity when ever tribe nation and tongue will gather
before the throne of God. But that was what we experienced in the worship at
the NCFI International Conference at the
start of November.
Some three hundred nurses from over twenty countries
attended the first International Christian nursing conference that NCFI has
ever held in Latin America, including delegations from Spain, Nigeria, South
Korea, Australia, Canada, the US, Norway, Peru, Bolivia, Columbia, Argentina,
Costa Rica, Chile and Uruguay. There
were at least seven delegates from the UK – two from Nurses Christian Fellowship Scotland
(NCFS) and five from Christian Nurses &
Midwives (CNM is the member body of NCFI for England and Wales).
The opening evening set a very strong note for the
conference, with the Chilean Minister of Health speaking passionately about the
role of faith in Jesus in the best of healthcare, and that his government has
put the right to good spiritual care into national law! Patricia Bennar followed with a scholarly
look at the Biblical idea of the ‘Compassionate Stranger’ as exemplified in the
parable of the Good Samaritan. Both the
carer and the cared for in this parable are outsiders – but with which do we
identify ourselves?
The theme was ‘Partners in Care’, and we looked each day at
themes ‘Partnering with God’, ‘Partnering with Patients and Families’ and
‘Partnering to Change the World’. Each
day started with a Biblical exposition from Raquel Contreras (a Chilean pastor
who ministers in the USA), and a professional session that looked at how these
scriptural truths impact upon our professional practice.
There were two training tracks in the concurrent sessions –
one on Leadership and one on Teaching Spiritual Care. Both training programmes are geared at giving
a distinctly Christian approach to developing the next generation of nurse
leaders and equipping nurses to give competent spiritual care to their
patients. We are looking at how we can
develop these further for members of CNM.
NCFI presented its Eight Year strategic plan from 2013-2021,
and a new structure to take this forward. This includes the development of an
Institute of Christian Nursing under NCFI that will develop professional
development programmes for nurses and midwives with a strong Christian and
professional ethos. The first two
resources are the leadership and spiritual care programmes, but these are seen
as the starting point only, the idea being to focus on training trainers in
regional and national fellowships with the long term vision of equipping
Christian nurses around the world to be agents for change in the culture of
care in their own nations.
CNM is very involved with the leadership of NCFI – CNM
Council member Sue Allen has been developing the leadership training programme
as part of the NCFI International Board, and remains on the board as part of
the development team for the Institute of Christian Nursing, while Steve Fouch
(CNM General Secretary) is European Regional Chair and European regional Board
Rep on the International Board. Former
CNM Chair, Liz Capper was also, until very recently, on the UK Trustee Board
for NCFI. We see involvement with the
international movement as a vital part of CNM’s ministry – sharing learning and
experience and being part of a wider movement to bring a Christian influence
and voice into our profession.
But the main joy of these conferences remains the fellowship
with other Christian nurses from around the globe, and learning from their
struggles and experiences more of what it means to serve Christ in caring for
our patients (one of the main themes of the conference, from the opening
address by Patricia Bennar to the closing plenary).
The next NCFI European Conference will be October 2014 in
Madrid, with a students’ conference on spirituality and care in Lisbon in
2013. The 2016 World Conference has yet
to be confirmed
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