Faitrade Fortnight resources for churches

As Fairtrade Fortnight (21 September - 4 October 2026) begins, the ecumenical charity Christian Concern for One World (CCOW) has issued some resources for churches and Christian communities.

These include:

A church action guide

An interactive chocolate prayer, which enables prayer for both local and global farmers

and

Preaching notes tied into the lectionary readings, as well as a wide variety of prayers and service ideas.

Maranda writes: "At CCOW, we continue to promote Fairtrade (and Fair Trade, which involves WFTO-certified handicrafts) because we think that Fairtrade still matters - and that it does for reasons which relate to some of our other global concerns.

At a time when international economic systems increasingly favour consolidation and concentrations of power, Fairtrade gives agency, respect, and negotiating status to small farmers and cooperatives.

At a time when human input is often hidden or removed from the products we use, Fairtrade highlights the people behind products and encourages us to care about their flourishing.

At a time where aid budgets are tumbling, Fairtrade offers participating farmers and workers income to facilitate personal and community development. Fairtrade farmers and workers determine how they will use the income from their crops and the Fairtrade premium, and many use it to educate themselves or their children, to build or access health services, roads or financial services, and to acquire skills and capital to grow their businesses.

At a time when dehumanising conflicts are impoverishing, displacing, and isolating millions of civilians, Fair Trade enables people to make human connections across borders, facilitating solidarity with individuals affected by war.

At a time when farmers everywhere are struggling with climate impacts, Fairtrade promotes climate resilience.

At a time when many large-scale problems seem to be beyond our capacity to influence for good, Fairtrade reminds us that we have agency, and that our choices can make a difference both to individuals (read Felix Tetteh's story in our Church Action Guide) and to established thinking.

Will Fairtrade solve all the world's problems? No. Nor should it be the extent of our work for justice. But it is a simple, everyday way that we can work for justice and human and planetary flourishing, and that we can remind ourselves of the importance of making ethical decisions wherever we can. And the more we promote it, the more it scales up - the more pressure there is for corporations to engage with it and the more income there is for producers."