Praying and Preaching on Fair Trade

 

Lord God,
In the fields of the poor
Even when abundant fruits ripen,
Injustice sweeps them away,
And families hunger.

Help us to share
The fruits of your bounty
So that all your family may benefit
From your gracious gifts. 

Each year, the Fairtrade Foundation produces a "Church Action Guide," which contains a wealth of prayers, Bible studies, and other helpful material. To go to the 2009 Church Action Guide, click here. If you want guides from before 2008, CCOW has copies of several available on request.

There are additional prayers on the Traidcraft and CAFOD websites (Traidcraft also has a Fair-Trade-related harvest pack), and some of CCOW's Fair Trade prayers can be downloaded at the end of this page. You'll notice some overlap with the Fairtrade Foundation resources; all four agencies are contributors to the Church Action Guide.

Fair Trade prayers can be as conventional or as innovative as you wish. If you’re from an informal tradition, why not try something new? For example, following a suggestion by Peter Graystone, hand everyone a sample tea bag as they come into church. During prayer time, ask them to hold it, to sniff the aroma of tea, to pray for all who have grown, picked and transported the tea – and for justice in the tea trade over all. Or show a powerpoint sequence of images of Fairtrade producers (the Fairtrade Foundation has photos available for download) as a focus for your prayers.

Preaching

If you’d like a sermon on trade during Fairtrade Fortnight, the “Church Action Guide” contains meditations and sermon guides based on the lectionary readings for at least one Sunday in the Fortnight.

If you’d like to preach (or suggest that someone else preach) about Fair Trade or trade issues at other times during the year, you might want to look at “Development Matters,” a week-by-week linkage of the lectionary readings to development issues. It’s put together by Dr. Elizabeth Perry and is available in hard copy from CCOW or on the Anglican Diocese of Bath and Wells’ website.

Plays

If your church is open to plays, why not try a sketch?

If you have the technology, you could even go for a film. The Fairtrade Foundation has short video clips on their website.