In the first week of March, the smell of fairly traded coffee beans and the clink of tea cups will fill the air across Oxford Diocese as its churches get ready for The Big Brew, the main event for this year's Fairtrade Fortnight.
More than 80 Anglican churches around the three counties will be brewing up Fairtrade tea and coffee as Oxford Diocese, in conjunction with Traidcraft, holds its first-ever 'Big Brew' from March 3 to March 10.
The Big Brew will see churches across the diocese hold a Fairtrade coffee morning with the help of free materials provided by Traidcraft.
Maranda St John Nicolle, co-ordinator for Christian Concern for One World, said the event was "a wonderful opportunity for outreach and for sharing in the excitement of a diocese-wide occasion".
And the coffee mornings are being readied in various shapes and form, with some parishes doing special editions of after-service coffee, while others are offering stand-alone coffee mornings in aid of a specific cause. The benefice of Wargrave with Knowl Hill is holding Big Brews in home groups; St Nicolas, Newbury, is combining its Big Brew with an arts festival; a fair trade representative in the Botley team is having an "at home" lunch and fair trade sale; and St Nicholas, Beedon, is holding a tea in a primary school.
