A Birmingham curate is launching a twitter campaign to encourage churchgoers to "snap up" fairtrade items being sold in their area and share on twitter during Fairtrade Fortnight.

The Rev David Edgerton, @knowlecurate, has been trying a different fairtrade chocolate bar every day throughout Lent. He is using the Fortnight to tweet about his local fairtrade discoveries and is encouraging others to do the same using the hashtag #fairtradefortnight

"I've been working in partnership with local shops to encourage them to offer a wider choice of Fairtrade products. If we all started tweeting during Fairtrade fortnight when we spotted fairtrade goods, this would encourage more goods on the shelves."

David is also running an awareness evening at Knowle parish church with speakers from Cadbury, based in the diocese, explaining why the company support fairtrade and what it means in practice.

Fairtrade Fortnight initiatives will be held across the CofE's 16,000 churches and 44 dioceses.

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said:'I'm proud to be supporting this year's Fairtrade Fortnight to plead with the government to do more for small hold farmers. I'm delighted to be sending my paper avatar to join thousands of others for Fairtrade's march on Parliament during Fairtrade Fortnight.'

Other events

St Paul's Cathedral in London is marking the Fortnight with a display of a model of the Cathedral made from Faitrade products and packaging, on display at the West end of the building.

Exeter diocese is launching Heavenly Recipes an ebook of fairtrade recipes from Devon using locally produced food to celebrate the Fortnight.

Manchester diocese is hosting its first Sustainability Exhibition with a range of of stalls, seminars, networking and ideas to mark the Fortnight while Oxford diocese has a dedicated fairtrade section on its website with a parish pledge form and easy to follow instructions on becoming a fairtrade church.

The Bishop of Burnley and Acting Bishop of Blackburn, Rt Revd John Goddard, is calling on Lancashire to support The Real Easter Egg campaign for 2013 and help change a life to mark Fairtrade fortnight.

Notes

Knowle Parish Church http://www.kpc.org.uk/

http://www.manchester.anglican.org/events/2925/church-and-schools-sustainability-exhibition

www.exeter.anglican.org

www.oxford.anglican.org

www.blackburn.anglican.org

www.stpauls.co.uk