No, it's not one of my infamous typos, it's what one of our children understands us to have been talking about today at church. We marked the end of Fairtrade Fortnight with a service focusing on this complex issue - and recognising the interplay of this with other aspects of more ethical shopping choices.

In the 'All Together' slot we first asked the children who had received varying amounts of money (from 1p to £10) in one of the stewardship services how they'd used that money. The reports were very creative... Two sisters had put theirs (5p and 10p) into a Marie Curie charity box; one little boy had put his (1p) in his money box, another had bought four things (though what I could not decipher nor could his Mum!); the recipient of the £10 had bought a book with part of it and given the rest to out local Museum and Art Gallery at Kelvingrove. Fantastic! We moved onto thinking about choices (which fitted quite well with what Sunday School were doing anyway) and the children were invited to come and have a look at a range of items laid out on the table to see what they had in common.  Spotting the logo a little voice piped 'they're all fairy traded.'

What a lovely image that conjures up - tiny winged creatures flitting around the world gathering goods to sell to us in fairy trade shops.  Only good fairies of course, who would ensure that the people who made the items were well treated - especially if they were house elfs.

As the children left for Sunday school they were invited to choose a fairy-trade chocolate bar to take away with them, and there was some left for those adults who were not abstaining for lent.

Next week we are thinking about children and the church, and the Sunday School will be sharing with us some thoughts on what they like best, dislike most and would love to change about church.  With such wonderful children as we have, it promises to be good...