Some Suitable Women

This is a history of the Anglican Community of the Holy Name (CHN): its life and work within the context of the Diocesan Mission to the Streets and Lanes (MSL) in Melbourne from 1888 until 1997. The book presents the ministry of the MSL as an integral part of Melbourne's early history of charitable and social welfare work and tells the story of a group of women who - for more than one hundred years - dedicated their lives to helping the poor and disadvantaged in the city's most deprived areas while concurrently establishing the foundations of the Religious Life for women within the Church of England in Australia.

The book examines the reasons why this particular group of women chose to live - year in and year out - among Melbourne's neediest, proving the value of relationships established between the workers and recipients of the charity offered. It records the emergence of charitable institutions in Melbourne, highlights the problems of poverty and dislocation confronting the poor, and the challenges confronting the major Churches in Melbourne, particularly the Church of England, to be seen to be doing something.

The second Bishop of Melbourne, James Moorhouse, met this challenge by establishing the Mission to the Streets and Lanes. He envisaged some suitable women dedicating themselves to this type of work and in 1888 Emma Silcock, known as Sister Esther, became not only the first Manager of the Mission to the Streets and Lanes but the Founder of the Community of the Holy Name.

The religious and social background is also discussed: the rise of the Deaconess movement, the revival and establishment of religious communities for both men and women within the Church of England, the different methods used by charitable organisations in the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, in England as well as Australia, the problems arising from attitudes that divided the poor into those 'deserving' and those 'undeserving'.


But most of all, the book is the story of the women of the Community of the Holy Name: what it was like for them, living under the discipline of the religious life, while working within the context of the early Melbourne charity network and on into the modern era. They were ordinary people called to embrace a rather extraordinary life to the glory of God.



Sheila Dunlop was born in Scotland and emigrated to Australia with her parents and sister in 1951. She worked in a missionary school in the Nilgiri Hills, South India, before entering the Community of the Holy Name in Cheltenham, Victoria, and has since then been involved in various works run by the Community. Sheila obtained a B.A. in Old and Middle English from Monash University, a Bachelor of Theology from The Melbourne College of Divinity, an M.A. in Religious Studies and in 2013 completed her PhD research at Monash University. In 2003, Sheila was ordained to the priesthood in the Diocese of Melbourne