Get the Fairtrade habit

With around 270 churches in the Oxford Diocese supporting the campaign for fair trade, this month’s Fairtrade Fortnight, from 6-19 March, promises to be a lively one.

More than-one third of all  diocesan churches have now pledged to use Fairtrade tea and coffee, with most of those also becoming ‘Fairtrade churches’, committed to using other Fairtrade products where appropriate and to promoting the campaign. 

World Development Adviser Maranda St John Nicolle is delighted at the support: ‘Oxford Diocese now has one of the highest numbers of committed churches in the country. We decided at diocesan synod in 2003 that we wouldn’t claim Fairtrade Diocese status until 60 per cent of our churches were involved, so we’re not there yet, but it’s inspiring to see so many churches seeking to “do justice” in this way.’

The FAIRTRADE Mark on a product guarantees that its producers are assured of a fair deal. 

Maranda says: ‘The decision by an individual or a church to use such products may seem insignificant. But the sum of thousands such decisions is enormous; Fairtrade sales in the UK grew from £16.7 million in 1998 to £140 million in 2004. Such growth benefits producer communities worldwide; CafeDirect alone estimates that its suppliers earned more than £2.8 million more in 2003 than they would have without Fairtrade.

This year’s Fairtrade Fortnight theme, ‘Make Fairtrade Your Habit’, encourages people to choose the brand as regularly as possible. Events have been planned around the diocese to highlight the message and introduce some of the more than 1,300 products that carry the Mark, from tea and coffee to chocolate and clothes.

Many churches are planning to include Fairtrade in their worship. There’s a themed service at The Good Shepherd, Cox Green and a dramatic sketch at Trinity, Lower Earley.

St Frideswide’s, Water Eaton are including an article in their parish magazine.

At St. Mary’s, Wendover, which supports ‘@St Mary’s’, an innovative high-street outreach that combines the church offices and a Fair Trade shop, parishioners are organising a High Street coffee morning. Carolyn Bailey says the aim is to show that ‘you don’t have to compromise on quality to go Fairtrade.’ 

Why do so  many get involved? Pam Thompson of Trinity, Lower Earley, told us: ‘It’s a question of justice. If you were the person who was growing the raisins or picking the coffee beans, wouldn’t you like to think that someone cared enough to give you a fair wage for it? And if you think that, then [going on Christ’s injunction ‘Do to others as you would have them do to you’] you have to be prepared to pay a fair wage.”

For Fairtrade Fortnight resources log on to the Fairtrade Foundation  at www.fairtrade.org.uk, the Traidcraft website, www.traidcraft.co.uk, or  contact Christian Concern for One World by email or telephone on 01865 378059.  For pledge forms to join go the diocese’s campaign  to www.oxford.anglican.org or contact CCOW.