Introduction/prayer
DVD we have decided not to die - connection between it and Grace – mention stuff from last service
Song(s)
Blob tree where are you participating in the Kingdom of God
Jelly babies
Participition in Grace – ‘making space’
Participation in the wider world -- see below
Time of contemplative prayer inc explanation of the new monthly gig
Concluding liturgy/ritual
This was the final liturgy/ritual:
As well as considering participation in our churches and communities to be important, we are also very interested in participation in the wider world, such as the addressing of injustice in the world.
If you think that the injustice in the world is too large to handle, we need to find an action on a scale which we can handle. And we need to start from a position of knowing something about injustice, so here is a story. About sugar.
Sugar is very important -- where would we be without jelly babies? More seriously, it is a major global commodity, which millions of people rely on for their livelihoods. And if it is traded fairly, it helps to release people from poverty. This is what is happening in Mozambique, in southern Africa. The government has introduced a policy to help its sugar industry. It has set a minimum price above which imported sugar must be sold, helping locally produced sugar compete with imports. Sugar factories and plantations now employ 25,000 people, and foreign sugar companies are investing in Mozambique. Workers now earn enough to send their children to school and to afford medical help when they are sick -- both important indicators of development and hope for the future.
But Mozambique is an exception. International trade rules are preventing the governments of poor countries from helping their farmers and industries. In exchange for loans from international bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, which many poor countries rely on, many countries are forced to accept detrimental economic policies.
Mozambique was put under great pressure to stop supporting its sugar industry. If it had stopped, this would have opened the economy to sugar imports which may well have been cheaper than local production, often because rich countries who don't have to worry about being able to get loans subsidise their farmers or because of dumping of oversupply. In which case, the farmers in Mozambique would not have been able to sell their products and they would lose their livelihood. Imagine it -- you have been working hard for years to lift your family out of poverty, and then you are sent back to square one by farmers who are supported by their government, while your government is not allowed to support you. This is exactly what is happening in many situations around the world.
I am sure you think that this is unfair, and hopefully you would like to do something about it. So I have brought in some postcards to Alan Johnson, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry. The World Trade Organisation is having a critical meeting in Hong Kong next month, and so we want to ask Mr Johnson to stand up for what we want -- to allow developing countries to shape trade policies that are in the interests of their people and the environment. The more people ask him, the more likely he is to do it.
The postcards are over there at the back. Please sign one before you leave, and please also think about whether you would like to do more. There is a sign-up list for further information. If you need a further incentive, I have brought some chocolate.
[Everyone who signed up to receive further information received the following message: "To sign up to receive Take Action (in which case you will be sent postcard appeals, similar to the one to Alan Johnson, about five times a year), or e-mail appeals, or (preferably) both, go to Christian Aid's Take Action web site and tick the first two boxes."]