Putting Our Money Where Our Mouth Is

Springwood Uniting Church will host the second annual Australian Fair Trade Faith Conference, from 31 May to 1 June.
 
Rev. John Martin is one of the event’s organisers. He told Insights the event would be an opportunity for networking and encouragement.

“The purpose of the conference is to promote fair trade and ethical shopping amongst Christian people and to demonstrate that it is a natural component of the justice dimension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” he said.

John Bell will be the conference’s keynote speaker. A resource worker for the Wild Goose Group of the Iona Community, he is a widely renowned Christian author and sought after conference speaker.

The event will also host the free Noelene Martin Memorial lecture on Saturday 1 June at 7:30pm. Noelene Martin was a passionate advocate for Fair Trade, who established the annual Fair Trade Fair at Springwood. She was also the author of Freda Whitlam’s biography, Freda.

Stop the Traffik’s Fuzz and Caroline Kitto will also present a workshop at the conference.

In 2013, the NSW.ACT Synod meeting agreed to a resolution to that all churches and church agencies should use Fair Trade products and actively promote Fair Trade amongst its members. Part of the resolution calls on the Synod to “serve only Fair Trade products (such as coffee and tea) at meetings it is responsible for”. The resolution was carried by consensus.  

According to Rev. Martin, the Fair Trade Faith Conference will also “be full of ideas and strategies to help us, as they say, ‘put our money where our mouth is.’”

The 2019 Australian Fair Trade Faith Conference takes place at Springwood Uniting Church from 31 May to 1 June.  For more information, see the event’s Facebook page and the official website.

Jonathan Foye is Insights’ Editor