It describes the start from small beginnings and noted how God had blessed them over the years.

"How was the Christian Dental Fellowship first started?" Was the seed first sown at those Prayer Meetings in the Museum of the Royal Dental Hospital during the Blitz on London in 1940/41, or was it at that special meeting at the time the original British Dental Students’ Association was inaugurated in Manchester in 1942, or was it at a Pioneer Camp in Anglesey in the late 1940’s?

In 1950 Dr. Douglas Johnson (then General Secretary of IVF—now known as the Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship) asked that consideration should be given to forming a Dental Section of the Graduates’ Fellowship. A meeting of dental members of the GF was held after the GF reunion on Saturday 16th September 1950, and at this meeting it was decided to form a Christian Dental Fellowship.

This meeting was apparently very poorly attended as following it Douglas Johnson wrote "Don’t be too disappointed with a small start, remember the church only had one great ‘Man’ plus eleven trembling disciples at the start; it is the ONE that turns the scales". How true these words have proved to be for it is only through the power of God that the Fellowship has grown to the size it is today.

The first CDF Newsletter was just a duplicated sheet in those days and is dated 17th February 1951. It includes a report from Mr. George Bowerman who was then a dental missionary in Kalene. There were 20 members at the time. The first of many reports in the "British Dental Journal" appeared in March of the same year. The first ‘Public Meeting’ arranged by CDF was a Reception in Church House, Westminster, on Monday 21st July 1952, for delegates attending the 11th International Dental Congress at the Royal Festival Hall. A report in the "Christian Graduate" recorded that over 120 delegates representing 19 different countries attended this reception; the Fact and Faith film "Hidden Treasures" was introduced by the late Mr. Norman Gray who was at that time Secretary of the European Orthodontic Society and was later to become the first President of CDF." (CDF: The first 25 Years, CDF 1977)

So CDF will be 50 years old next year and has grown from its original 20 to nearly 400. Our membership is now open to all members of the Dental Team (Dentists and PCDs). But our aims and objectives still remain unchanged as we seek to unite Christian dental professionals and students, to deepen their Christian faith and promote the highest attainable standards of Christian and professional conduct; to increase personal faith in Christ in the Dental profession, to strengthen the work of Christian Unions in Dental Schools and to support the work of Christian Mission throughout the world, particularly where Dental Professionals are involved.

To celebrate our Golden Jubilee we will have a Special One Day meeting combined with our AGM in April or May. Details of this will be put on the Web and in Newsround soon. We will be producing a book to describe the impact of CDF on people’s lives here and abroad and to give thanks to God for all that He has achieved through the Fellowship.

Alan Lawrence June 2001