12th July 2008 10.30am – 3.00pm
At Hampstead Parish Church we support some of the world’s most vulnerable, disadvantaged people through our charitable giving programme. But as the Area Dean reminded us in his recent meeting with the PCC, in our post-Christian nation, the Church’s outreach needs to begin with the turning of our attention towards our immediate neighbours to share with them the Good News of Christian Faith and the priorities of God’s Kingdom.
The two are not mutually exclusive of course, and one of the roles of the church in “looking outward” to the community is to point our society toward the pursuit of justice in the wider world. That helps people to “see the point” of Christian faith. As St Matthew said, “By their fruit will you know them”. And that kind of credibility of Christian action leads people to explore more deeply the meaning of Christianity in their own lives.
We have one opportunity to do precisely this on 12th July when the Diocese of London is holding a “Big Brew Day” to promote fairtrade products as part of its aim to become a “Fairtrade Diocese” by 2012. I hope most people will now know that the fairtrade movement seeks to ensure that workers in the developing world are paid a fair price for the commodities they produce. More information is available about this at www.traidcraft.co.uk. For some months now, Diana Finning has been organising the stall at the back of church to sell fairtrade products and, in so far as we can, the church itself has switched to buying products that guarantee the producer a fairer price. The Big Brew Day offers us the opportunity to take our promotion of trade justice to the next level. So the purpose of the day is twofold:
To show to our community that, as a church, we believe in just wages for people who produce the commodities that fill our supermarkets and to encourage people in Hampstead to take this seriously in their own shopping baskets. To open our church to the community as an opportunity for them to find out more about what we do and show that the church is available to them. So our primary activity will be offering to all comers a free cup of fairtrade tea! But there will also be other refreshments, tours of the church, music to listen to, flower arranging with fairtrade flowers, and an opportunity to meet the clergy. We ask all members of this church to do two things:
If you are free, please come along to help and welcome. Hospitality is at the very heart of Christian discipleship, so please help us to show hospitality to our community.
Secondly, encourage friends and neighbours to drop in for a cuppa! Preferably, bring them along and make them feel the church is a place where they are welcome to join us in seeking a better world.
Big Brew Day
Jim Walters