logo
 

>>> find another congregation

>

 

We provide a focus for liberal religious worship and reflection and a centre of fellowship for people of religious sentiment.

Bury Unitarian Church
 

 

QUICK LINKS

 

services
trade justice
charity
social
book club
room hire
archives

general assembly

 

 


Trade Justice and Traidcraft

Fair Trade Status

Bury Unitarian Church was awarded Fair Trade Status by the Fairtrade Foundation, in 2009. This means that, since then, we have undertaken to use only fairly-traded ingredients, whenever possible, at all church-events. This includes all tea, coffee, sugar and hot chocolate.

Please join us in supporting this worthwhile venture.

We also support Trade Justice by operating a stall which sells fairly-traded goods; on the first and third Sunday morning in the month, after the service, from 12.15 p.m. to 12.45 p.m; the stall is open for business. Anne Mills, who has organised the stall since November, 2003, has always been delighted by the response from the congregation; an average of £2,500 worth of fairly-traded items has been sold from the stall, each year---more than £30,000 worth, in total!

In 2010, the church completed Just Trading Scotland's Rice Challenge, and has completed it twice more since then.The most popular items on sale are:

Sweets: Fudge, Butterscotch, and Buttermints
Chocolate Bars of all kinds 
Kilombero Rice
Toilet Tissue
Tea and Coffee
Cereal and Cereal Bars

 

 

..............................and much, much  more!

Feel free to visit the stall to see what is on offer.

Spring 2019 - News!

Our Fairtrade initiative continues to be positive and successful. Rev. Kate McKenna and Organiser, Anne Mills, are active members of the Bury Fair Trade Group; Kate became its Chairman, in January, 2019. This year's Fairtrade Fortnight has been busy; we hosted a Teaparty, in February, when tea, coffee and delicious homemade cakes were on offer as refreshments; a raffle, Cake Stall, and two stalls of fairly-traded items (our church-stall, and Justicia's, from Bolton) operated and did good business. A very pleasant afternoon was had by all, and a cheque for £232.00 was subsequently presented to Bernard Emblem, towards Bury Fair Trade Group funds. All those involved are to be thanked for their efforts.

We held a Fair Trade Service, on March 3rd, which reinforced the principles that we support: trade justice, compassion towards those less well-off (in every way) than ourselves, and encouragement of people in developing countries, who struggle to earn a fair day's pay for a fair day's work. Anne regularly expresses her appreciation of her church-members for supporting the Traidcraft Stall, and, especially, to Jean Brookhouse, who helps her to run it.
Uncertainty over the future of Traidcraft caused concern when the organisation announced, in September, 2018, that it was to cease trading at the end of that year. After valiant efforts on the part of many different people, the company has reorganised and has been able to continue into its 40th year, albeit in a simplified form. We still do not know precisely how Traidcraft's problems will affect us, in the long-term; at present, some stock is proving impossible to buy, but we hope that all will eventually be well.

The Bury and Bolton Fair Trade Groups organised a Fair Trade Fortnight lecture, on March 1st, at Bury's Holy Cross College, where we were all made very welcome; Kevin, the Head of Campaigns, at the Fair Trade Foundation, spoke enthusiastically about his work, and Push, who is working with the foundation until July, was passionate in recounting his efforts to improve the lot of those in developing countries, including walking many miles, in several different countries, in order to spread the word. This was inspirational, and the students present showed themselves willing to support Fair Trade, by their actions, and by some very searching questions. It was disappointing that Rosine, a cocoa farmer from the Cote d'Ivoire, was unable to participate in the lecture, as planned, as she had been refused a visa; however, the occasion was interesting and informative, and, maybe, Rosine will be able to join us on another occasion.

Other Fair Trade events included promoting our work at one of the local mosques, and handing out samples of fairly-traded chocolate in Bury's main shopping-centre; in this way, we continue to raise our profile and convey greater understanding of the issues involved when dealing with Fair Trade.

For more information about fairly-traded products go to:

www.traidcraft.co.uk

www.ethicalsuperstore.com

www.fairtrade.org.uk

 

 

INTRODUCTORY BOOKLET:

A FAITH WORTH THINKING ABOUT

click here for a free download

Bury Unitarian Church
1 Bank Street
Bury
Lancashire
BL9 0DN

0161 761 3785

 

 

 

t

Back to top