"The Lenten season is a particularly appropriate time to ask God to fill you with compassion for the poor and oppressed and to put this into practice in concrete ways," reflects Craig Higgins in On Keeping a Holy Lent. This year, City Church is privileged to provide opportunities to collectively explore these disciplines in unique ways. City Hope has partnered with, Trade as One, a local fair trade company that provides people with tangible ways to practice thoughtful consumption.
"Trade is more important than aid," says Tadesse Meskela on behalf of over 70,000 Ethiopian coffee farmers in the award-winning documentary, Black Gold. To delve into the fair trade theme, City Hope's series Stories of Hope is screening Black Gold in the Russian Center Theatre this Sunday evening. Providing space to get together, eat candy, drink soda, watch a thought-provoking documentary, and highlight ways people are making a difference is what the series is all about.
After this film, we will hear how we can support Trade as One's efforts to promote sustainable business practices and break cycles of poverty and dependency in the developing world. The beauty of this sustainable model is that we can help producers all over the world, working to get out of poverty, by purchasing products that we already purchase.
In addition to watching a documentary on fair trade together, the founder, Nathan George, will share his story during Sunday worship services. He will invite our church to participate in Hungry for a Change—a five day, rice-and-beans fast. Pastors Fred and Paul will also be sharing their experience doing this fast over the past week. The fast packs come with instructions and will be available for sale at church and after the documentary. We will start the fast together on April 1st—no fooling.
City Hope is proud to introduce Trade as One, so we've created a partner page to point people towards and build community around fair trade.
A Fair Trade Night
Sunday, March 18 | 7-9 PM | Sutter St | Auditorium
RSVP for the Sunday night Stories of Hope event here.