Each Year the Josephine Butler Memorial Trust holds an Award Ceremony. The wife of an Anglican Priest Josephine Butler workedk with offenders and street workers in Victorian Liverpool and Oxford – behaviour not positively regarded by the narrow views of that society! She was the first woman (without a vote) to get an act of Parliament changed. There are four Awards:
The Women of the Year went to the Revd Dr Sheryl Anderson, Chair of the Liverpool Methodist District. She serves along with Bishop John, Archbishop Malcolm, and others as a President of Churches Together in the Merseyside Region & Vice Chair of its Trustees.
The Volunteer of the Year Award went to the Revd Dr Taras Khomych. Father Taras is a Lecturer in Theology at Liverpool Hope University and Chaplain at St Edwards’s School. However, it is his amazing work chairing the Ukrainian Association here (remember Eurovision?), serving as Chaplain to the Ukrainian Catholic community. In addition, he has played pivotal roles in the Archdiocese’s support programme for Ukraine and building broad links to support our friends from the Ukraine living here in Liverpool.
The Scholarship went to Albert Osei a member of the Tsedequah Community based at Liverpool Cathedral which brings together young Anglican from various parts of the world. In addition to work at the Cathedral Albert is involved in the Micah Foodbank at St Brides and st Vincent de Paul. Albert is from Kumasi part of the triangular diocesan with Liverpool Diocese of Liverpool and the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia.
The Josephine Butler Award went to TANGO – based at the Church at the Centre in Kirkby. It is a joint venture between ten local churches of different denominations, TANGO works with Knowsley Foodbank, and specialist community groups and is based in Kirkby In-Shops.
The Trust has three key partners – The Cathedral (who host the Annual Memorial Eucharist), Liverpool Hope University and Liverpool Diocesan Mother’s Union (which is regularly supported by the Trust for its creative education work on combatting domestic abuse and raising awareness of the evils of trafficking).
Two presentations were made to commemorate the first cohort of women as priests ordained in Liverpool Cathedral in 1994 to two colleagues closely associated with the Trust. One was the Revd Sr Norma Nelson who has held senior national positions in the Church Army and now lives in Kirkby and a past Women of the Year. The other was the Revd Canon Cynthia Dowdle OBE formerly Diocesan Dean of Women’s Ministry who is the Trust’s Honorary Treasurer.