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

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 2004 by Kollar, Rene

The influence and support of another prominent Anglican cleric and his close association with the Devonport community also contributed to Sellon's troubles. And, as in the case of Bishop Phillpotts, the Evangelicals in the Devonport area scorned his Tractarian views. Edward Bouverie Pusey, the doyen of the Oxford Movement, played a significant part in Sellon's enterprise. She had an interview with him before her arrival at Devonport, and Pusey sent a letter of introduction to one of the local clerics, W. B. Killpack, who would become one of her strongest supporters.13 His frequent visits soon after her arrival and the questionable liturgies for the sisters also contributed to the dislike and distrust of Sellon. The nature of the work which Sellon undertook should have eased some anxieties, but her ministry among the orphans in the area actually became the catalyst for the years of criticism.

The life of a cloistered and contemplative nun seemed useless and unnecessary to some Anglicans, but others recognized the value in a more active life outside of convent walls based on the principles and work of the German order of deaconesses. Founded in 1836 at Kaiserswerth by T. Fliedner, these women labored among the sick and orphans. If females felt called to ministry within the church, many Anglicans argued, they should eschew the quiet life and devote their energies to the less fortunate in the manner of the deaconesses. The Evangelicals also saw a danger to their church and to individuals who sought the contemplative life, namely, the possibility that these women might convert to Roman Catholicism. The High Church party certainly did not wholeheartedly endorse the cloistered life either. The English Churchman, a publication of this group, warned its readers of the dangers of a "life of solitude" a few years before Sellon left for Devonport. Responding to a letter from a cleric who expressed a desire that such institutions be established in the Anglican Church, the newspaper described this "pining for solitude" as not only morbid "but deeply sinful."14 But the author of the article would certainly have praised individuals such as Lydia Sellon "who apprehend that, in our day, when so much ignorance, vice, poverty, misery, and sorrow prevails on all sides Solitude, except in very peculiar cases, is selfish and sinful. Christian men and women must be up and doing." Moreover, this commentary pointed out, "If they have no duties at home, or among their kindred and acquaintance, they have duties abroad, among the ignorant, the poor, and the afflicted." At least in this area of active ministry to the less fortunate, it appeared that Sellon's sisterhood would be accepted and welcomed.

The numerous charitable activities which Sellon and her sisters undertook should have impressed anyone. Her biographer details the manner in which she threw herself into her work, even making personal contact with children on the street and recruiting them as students. Her strong personality proved successful, and a number of projects soon came under her supervision.