The World Church Group’s remit is “to keep the congregation informed of church matters around the world”. We do this by following global news, and information from the Church of Scotland’s international partner churches and mission partners, including Greenbank’s own mission partner the Reverend Dr Stewart Gillan, based at St Andrew’s “Scots Memorial” church in Jerusalem. We share information with the congregation by writing articles for the monthly “Greenbank Connections” newsletter.
For many years our group has supported the Fairtrade movement by organising stalls of Fairtrade goods. Fairtrade works with farmers and workers so they can improve their living standards, invest in their communities and businesses, and protect our shared environment. The Church Group World makes a small margin on Fairtrade items sold and when a surplus builds up we make a donation to an overseas charitable project. Some examples are described further down this page.
The World Church Group is on hand to support the Christian Aid Co-ordinator with the annual Christian Aid Week collection and with other Christian Aid fund-raising events during the year.
The World Church Group also takes an active interest in overseas projects supported by the Greenbank Guild as part of the wider Church of Scotland Guild fundraising programme.
Fairtrade Stalls
The World Church Group organises Fairtrade stalls several times each year, usually around the time of Harvest Thanksgiving, just before Advent and a few weeks before Easter. Goods available typically include household staples such as tea and coffee, and also seasonal goods such as Christmas gifts or Easter eggs. In between stalls Fairtrade items can be purchased directly from the One World Shop, from True Origin‘s online shop and from other outlets.
Past Events
In 2017 surplus funds from our Fairtrade stalls were used to twin the Greenbank Church toilets with school toilets in Shamende Village, Zambia through Toilet Twinning.
On several occasions the World Church Group has arranged Greenbank Church’s participation in True Origin’s 90kg Rice Challenge, encouraging the purchase of the award winning and very tasty Kilombero Rice from Malawi. In 2018, two rice farmers from Malawi visited Greenbank and spoke about their lives and the transformational power of receiving a fair and reliable income for their rice.
In 2022 and 2023 donations were made to the Vine Trust’s Kazunzu Village of Hope project in Tanzania and to the Youth Empowerment Support Initiative in Malawi.
Contact Details
If you would like to find out more about the World Church Group, or volunteer to help please get in touch via the Church Office.