fellowship news
catalyst teams
Catalyst Teams work out the mission of CMF locally. They are made up of CMF members who volunteer their time to shape and develop CMF in their area. The most recent teams are in Grampian and West Yorkshire. We welcome Wani, Hannah, and Keith as the latest Catalyst Team Leaders.
Wani Awoloto leads the West Yorkshire team and is a Foundation Year Two doctor based in Bradford with a developing interest in ENT. Originally from North London, she moved to West Yorkshire over a decade ago to begin her journey into medicine. Wani has been involved with CMF since before starting medical school and is passionate about the discipleship and spiritual growth of Christian healthcare professionals.
The Grampian team is co-led by Keith Buchan and Hannah Gunn. Keith Buchan has been a Consultant Cardiothoracic Surgeon in Aberdeen for 24 years. He graduated MBChB from Glasgow in 1986 and did postgraduate training in Glasgow, Birmingham, South Africa, Cardiff and Cambridge before settling with his wife and two sons in Aberdeen.
Hannah Gunn is a GP trainee in the Grampians. She graduated in Medicine from Dundee in 2017. Hannah is passionate about providing high-quality palliative care and hopes to build on a portfolio career as a GP. Together with her husband, Duncan, she enjoys welcoming people into their home over food, as well as rock climbing, hiking, travelling, and engaging in ministry both locally and overseas.
If there is, as yet, no Catalyst Team serving your area, contact James Tomlinson (james.tomlinson@cmf.org.uk), Head of Volunteers and Networks, to find out more. If there is already a team near you, contact the team leader to explore getting involved (see cmf.li/CurrentCTs for a list of teams and their contact details).
This year’s Specialty Network Leaders and Catalyst Team Pre-Conference in May brought together 30 volunteers ahead of CMF’s National Conference. A key aspect of the day was sharing ideas and experiences across the teams. Sessions included building and sustaining a healthy team and including nurses, midwives and the wider healthcare team in Catalyst Teams and Specialty Networks. Afternoon workshops explored extending our reach and engaging Christians in healthcare, engaging in ethics and the public square and engaging with international graduates.
belonging to CMF
Following a successful first online session for new CMF members, a second session is planned for Monday, 24 November, at 8pm See cmf.org.uk/events-at-cmf
Have you joined CMF in the last couple of years, or do you still feel like a newcomer to CMF? If you answered yes to either question, this online session aims to welcome and orient you to CMF. Led by CMF’s senior leadership, this session will provide an opportunity to learn more about CMF and your membership, as well as offer time to meet with senior staff and other members.
James Tomlinson, CMF Head of Volunteers and Networks
psychiatry network
Many thanks to all those who attended our remarkable CMF Psychiatry annual day conference at Johnson House in London on 27 June. The theme was ‘suicide’, and it was so important to know the Spirit’s presence amongst us, blesing our time together. We thoughtfully explored, reflected upon, and discussed such poignant and interesting areas as sharing the impact of losing a patient to suicide as a psychiatrist, lived experience of suicidal ideation and the impact of suicidal ideation as healthcare professionals, the new 2025 national guidance on suicide, the morality of assisted suicide from a Christian perspective, and a consideration of the biblical theology of suicide. Towards the end of the day, the Q&A panel generated much rigorous, robust and rich discussion.
Praise God for the opportunity to share fellowship and pray together on the day, ask and discuss plenty of questions, sing meaningful hymns of worship, and grow in wisdom, discernment and understanding, seeking to draw nearer to the Lord and illuminate his wisdom and great love.
With much encouraging feedback, the CMF Psychiatry events team is soon to start organising the 2026 day conference. Please consider contacting me (angharad.gray@cmf.org.uk) if you are a psychiatrist or mental health nurse and are interested in joining a CMF Psychiatry small group this autumn. I would be delighted to speak with you initially. Our small online groups have been running for over three years. We have three groups: an events working group, a support and encouragement group, and a public policy group.
Angharad Gray, CMF Psychiatry Link
global
Partnership in Medical Mission Today
This was the first European mission conference facilitated by CMF Global was held in July at the London School of Theology. In the changing world of healthcare and mission, we considered how we need to learn further about working in partnership with colleagues and churches worldwide to serve those in greatest need, both physically, mentally, and spiritually. Gone are the days when missionaries only travelled from Western nations to every other part of the world. God is at work across the world, strengthening churches, sending people from everywhere to everywhere. So, what is our role now as we seek to respond to the continuing mandate to go into all the world? We learnt together that there are still many ways in which we in the West can serve shoulder to shoulder with our brothers and sisters from across the world.
We welcomed representatives from 15 nationalities and learnt from experienced medical mission personnel and leaders from the majority world and beyond. There was rich learning across the participant group as we were taught, shared in seminars, worshipped, and ate together. Over 100 people joined, so many that the college couldn’t cope. Praise God!
Please pray as we seek the way forward in this area and prepare to book early next time round!
Fi McLachlan, Head of CMF Global
CMF Scholar
Starting this autumn, CMF Scholar is a six-month fellowship that is an opportunity to grow and develop as a Christian in medicine, nursing, or midwifery through teaching and mentoring in theology, ethics, leadership, and much more. Scholars complete a specific project (or projects) that will enable them to use their head, hands, heart, and skills to serve CMF’s mission, enabling our members to live and speak for Jesus.
Eight participants have signed up for this autumn’s intake. Please contact the CMF student team if you would be interested in being part of the autumn 2026 intake!
Andrew Jackson, Head of Student Ministries
Students
ICMDA European Summer Camp
The International Christian Medical and Dental Association (ICMDA) European Summer Camp for medical students and recently qualified doctors was held from 21 to 26 July 2025 in the Transylvanian Mountains, Romania. This is a transformative summer camp designed for medical students (and others) seeking to deepen their faith while exploring their vocation in healthcare. This year’s theme was ‘Embodying Christ: The Power of Authentic Living’.
There were around 100 attendees. I gave a ‘Saline Taster’ talk to give them a ‘taste’ of how we can be ‘the salt of the earth’ as Christian healthcare professionals. We explored how to bring Christ and his good news into their studies, placements, and work when they meet patients, and to become more comfortable and adept at practising healthcare that addresses the needs of the whole person.
It was also wonderful to connect, pray, worship, and have fellowship with students, doctors, and dentists from various European nations, including Romania, Denmark, the Netherlands, and France, who sought to give glory to God.
Please pray for the new students who started training this autumn and the leaders of CMF student groups as they start a new academic year.
UCCF Forum
Susan Marriott (CMF Head of Public Policy), Bex Lawton (CMF Head of Nurses and Midwives), Lily Farlow (a new Nurses and Midwives Associate) and I, Andrew Jackson, attended the 1,000-strong annual conference of leaders of student Christian Unions from all over England in the first week of September. CMF Deputy CEO Felicia Wong was also there, in her UCCF trustee role.
It was a wonderful privilege to be a part of this massive event, and to give glory to the Lord for what he is doing in and through the ministry of the Universities and Colleges’ Christian Fellowship (UCCF). I was involved in running a Healthcare Students seminar with Bex and Lily. This was an opportunity for around 40 healthcare students (studying medicine, nursing, midwifery, physiotherapy, pharmacy, optometry, dietetics, sports therapy and even veterinary medicine!) to hear about various healthcare student specific ministries, including CMF and CiAH (Christians in Allied Health). We explained the organisations’ missions and visions, and how students can be part of these networks. The students then had a chance to ask questions of us about how to be witnesses for Christ in their student life and beyond. We also led seminars on mental health and wellbeing for Christian students, as well as on start-of-life and end-of-life issues.
Please pray for student and newly qualified Christian doctors across Europe as they begin a new academic and work year with all the challenges they face in their different nations.
Andrew Jackson, CMF Head of Student Ministries
nurses & midwives
changes to the Nurses and Midwives Team
In July 2024, on a Nurses and Midwives Team away day, someone reminded us that when Jesus fed the five thousand with five loaves and two fish (in Matthew 14:13-21), the miracle wasn’t that he made the food stretch to that many people, but that he actually multiplied the food. In fact, ‘they all ate and were satisfied, and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over’. (v. 20) At the time, we felt stretched as a team of three, and so with this encouragement in mind, we prayed with renewed faith that God would multiply us rather than stretch us. And so, it’s with great joy that we welcome four new volunteers onto our team this autumn.
Lily Farlow and Bronwen Clatworthy are good friends who have both been studying in Cardiff. Bronwen has just qualified as a midwife and Lily as a mental health nurse. In addition to adjusting to their new jobs, this September, they will volunteer a day a week for our team, helping to manage our social media platforms. They join our team brimming with ideas and enthusiasm and can’t wait to engage with and encourage our members and others.
Isla Head is a newly qualified anaesthetics nurse who helped to facilitate our seminars at Student Conference and Student Leader Training this year. We’re delighted that Isla is now officially joining our team as an Associate focusing on supporting students. Since she is based in Dundee, she will be connecting with the Catalyst Team and CMF nurse and midwife groups in Scotland.
Last (but not least), Sherin Sam is an adult nurse based in Oxford. She moved from India to the UK almost three years ago. Since becoming a CMF member in 2023, she has already brought so much to our fellowship, including writing for Spotlight and being one of our speakers at this year’s NAMfest. She joins the team as an Associate for half a day a week. Among other things, she will be supporting our internationally educated nurses and midwives. She’s looking forward to our Bring and Share Lunch for International Healthcare Professionals on Saturday, 13 November! Scan the QR code below for details.
Please join us in praying for these wonderful volunteers as they get to grips with their new roles, and that they would be blessed while serving with us, as well as being a blessing to our ministry. Please also pray for the new student midwives and nurses who started training this autumn, and that we can connect with the many Christians among them. Please also remember in prayer all the newly qualified nurses and midwives, most of whom started work this autumn.
Bex Lawton, Head of Nurses and Midwives.
day of joy and sending out: CMF Nurses and Midwives celebrate in London
On 19 August, a group of newly-qualified nurses and midwives from CMF gathered together in London to mark their qualification and stepping into their first roles as healthcare professionals. What a joy it was to share together in celebration, storytelling, and prayer, and to be commissioned in our new roles to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our workplaces.
The day began with a meal together. Over the table, conversations quickly moved past introductions and into sharing stories of God’s goodness and provision over our years of training. Graduates swapped tales of training, first shifts, and the challenges they had overcome along the way. There were stories of joy: safe deliveries, kind patients, and answered prayers, as well as honest accounts of the tough moments: long nights, doubts, and unexpected obstacles. Yet every story carried the same theme – God had been faithful.
After lunch, the group walked together to the beautiful Guy’s Chapel. Stepping into the quiet space, there was a sense of reverence and expectancy. Here, a time of prayer and commissioning began. Graduates were lifted before God and prayed for with words of encouragement and blessing. The graduates said the words of a commissioning prayer, committing to serve God by caring for those made in his image in their workplaces across the UK.
The day continued as it began, with encouragement flowing freely. Graduates reminded one another that they are not alone in this next chapter. We shared stories of God’s faithfulness, and equipped each other with fresh courage, new friendships, and a sense of being sent out with God’s blessing, backed by prayerful support.
Before leaving the hospital grounds, the group paused to look at a striking mural nearby. It honours Black female healthcare professionals who have made lasting contributions to the NHS. Standing together in front of the mural, the graduates reflected on the courage, perseverance, and faith of those who had gone before them.
It was a day of joy, of sending out, and of remembering the One who called us to this work in the first place.
‘Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.’ (Lamentations 3:22–23)
Bronwen Clatworthy, a midwife in South Wales and CMF Associate for social media
staff & Volunteer movements
leaving
Lois Fielder moved on this summer as CMF Global Coordinator to pursue a career in global development and disaster response.
Fi McLachlan. After ten transformative years as Head of CMF Global, Fi will be moving on to new challenges in March 2026.
Rick Thomas will be leaving us as the Public Policy Researcher after more than a decade of facilitating the CMF Medical Study Group, writing submissions to government and independent sector consultations, and writing for our publications.
joining
We welcomed Naomi Haile as our new Global Coordinator in September. Naomi joins the Global team, having studied and worked in global health. She is keen to use her skills to facilitate God’s mission in the world.
Richard Eves has joined us in the new role of Public Policy Coordinator, supporting our Public Policy Team with their communications and public profile. Richard brings a background in church leadership and pastoral ministry.
