Flowers, Pictures, and Crosses: Criticisms of Priscilla Lydia Sellon's Care of Young Girls

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2004 by Kollar, Rene

After some questions from the assembly, including Hatchard (her critic) and Killpack (her supporter), Sellon read a prepared statement and began by arguing that the statements of the three former residents of the orphanage "are as false a picture of the Sisterhood, as are the false pretences of which it was extracted." Moreover, Sellon appealed to the English sense of honor and pointed out that "domestic privacy has been outraged. " She loudly proclaimed the loyalty of the sisterhood to the Anglican Church and explained the presence of the flowers, the pictures, and the crosses as the indulgence of women in "innocent pleasures." After this defense of the Anglican character of the orphanage and tracing her background and the reasons which brought her to Devonport, namely to work among the poor and the orphans, Lydia Sellon defended her care of orphan girls. She reminded her listeners of the favorable evaluations of the orphanage presented by the diocesan education inspectors. The academic training the girls received, she emphasized, was rooted in the Anglican faith and based on the Bible, and thus contradicted the accusations of her opponents. Sellons statement concluded with a plea to the audience: "Thousands are at this moment surrounding us, persisting in ignorance, and want, and sin. . . . if those who so bitterly criticise and watch our way of life, would but go and labour amongst the poor."

The business of this long and tedious meeting finally came to an end. In his concluding remarks, Bishop Phillpotts again could not conceal his admiration for the work of Lydia Sellon and his displeasure at unfounded accusations against the life at the orphanage. He thanked Sellon for her presence in the Diocese of Exeter and the notable achievements of the sisterhood among the poor, especially the orphan girls. Moreover, Phillpotts acknowledged that some would accuse him of being a papist who wanted to introduce Roman Catholicism into the diocese because of his support of Sellon and her orphanage. The bishop stated that he could not condone all the liturgical and devotional activities of the sisterhood, such as the flowers and the crosses, but remarked, "If there have been some things which these ladies have adopted in executing their work that I wish had not been adopted, they are absolutely overpowered by the cloud of virtues and graces exemplified in their conduct." he then expressed a hope that the questionable practices would not reappear in the orphanage. Lydia Sellon did unfortunately receive harsh and unwarranted treatment, he told the assembly, but nonetheless "she rises before us, and makes us all feel-the greatest, the proudest, the most self-righteous among us-what poor miserable things we are in the presence of her." Bishop Phillpotts s high praise of Sellon, however, made some cynics laugh and hiss, and he concluded with words of admiration for her character: "I conceive it as an honour to have the reproach of those who can express reprobation on my attempting to do justice to that excellent lady."