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Gateway Theology Forum: ‘Josephine Butler: Patron Saint of Prostitutes’
Gateway Theology School (GTS) invites you to the next Gateway Forum on 27 March, from 7pm to 9pm at St Matthew’s, Cheltenhmam.In the light of the Epstein files, news of smuggling gangs into Europe and the UK, and documentaries of dark, protected ‘off the map’ locations in foreign countries, we may see sex trafficking as a serious modern concern. But it has always been a serious problem throughout history, no less so in ‘prim and proper’ Victorian England. Rarely has it been brought into the light, nor the powerful forces behind it been challenged and exposed.
But 50 years before women gained the right to vote, Josephine Butler (1828-1906) a devout Christian from a privileged background – became one of the most courageous social reformers in modern history, fighting a powerful patriarchy, and succeeding against all odds in repealing a law which allowed prostitutes to be sexually assaulted by police on a regular basis.
Learn about the life of this most remarkable woman, a local heroine (from Cheltenham and Oxford) whose faith drove her to act at great personal peril, and yet whose legacy has been largely obscured – being too far ahead of her time.
