Fair trade

Wimborne Minster was amongst the first churches in the UK to achieve fair trade status in 2003 and fair trade is deeply ingrained in its life.

What does it mean to be a fair trade church?

We always use fairly traded coffee, tea and sugar for church refreshments and fairly traded wine for church celebrations and Communion.

Church caterers are encouraged to use fairly traded ingredients and we ask those hiring church premises to do so too. We involve ourselves enthusiastically in the town’s fair trade activities to extend fair trade across the community and to make it the natural choice for people of faith and conscience.

The benefits of fair trade

We know that fair trade enables small-scale producers and farmers worldwide to trade their way out of poverty. Our faith in Jesus, the friend of the poor, calls us to live lives that are economically just and to build a fairer and more sustainable world. We reflect our practical commitment in our worship, and in a previous Fair Trade Fortnight (www.fairtrade.org.uk) we created an altar frontal from packages of fairly traded items.

Taking the next steps

With almost 5,000 fairly traded products now available, our opportunities to pursue economic justice increase constantly. Members of the congregation are part of the volunteer staff at the town’s fair trade shop Fair Ground www.wimbornefairtradeshop.co.uk and work to promote fair trade across Wimborne in its civic, community, schools and business life. (See www.wimborne.gov.uk/wimborne/fairtrade.asp)