THE EVE OF CHRISTMAS

William Blake
Illustrations to Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity
'The Descent of Peace'

In this illustration for Milton's On the Morning of Christ's Nativity, we notice in the foreground a female figure lying in the snow. Blake was calling to our minds Vala as an image of the natural world where the seed contains the potential for development. In the center of the picture is an enclosed space in which the holy family rejoices in the arrival of new life. The enclosure is the womb in which the new man is nurtured until he is born of the spirit. The winged being in the arc of a rainbow partakes of the Dove of the Spirit which has been released from the egg of mortality.

May the Peace of Christ Descend on Us Today  

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MEMORIAL MINUTE

A Memorial Minute for Scott Minor

    Frank “Scott” Minor became a member of the Gainesville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in September of 1995, but he had been familiar with Friends from childhood. . He was born in Pennsylvania and attended Newtown Friends School and Newtown Friends Meeting as a child.

    Scott served in the military during the Vietnam War.  When he was inducted, he wrote “Quaker” on the line requesting religion.  The man behind the desk smiled and asked, “Don’t you know Quakers are pacifists?”  Scott didn’t know that. He earned several military decorations while in service.

    When he returned from the war, like many other Vietnam veterans, he was left with a residue of anger about the war and a sense of exclusion from the mainstream culture.  He bought a motorcycle and had two crashes which injured him physically more than the war had.

    Scott loved popular music and amassed a collection of long playing vinyl records which he hoped would increase in value over the years.  He also liked to play music for his own pleasure and in performing groups. He enjoyed the role of disc jockey. He tried his hand at writing lyrics and succeeded in writing a popular song called, “My Baby She Wrote Me a Letter.”

    Scott found a partner in Debbie Weaver, a birthright Friend from Indiana.  They attended the worship group which met at George Newkirk’s house in Ocala.  A bond grew between George and Scott. The meeting itself was a point of stability in Scott’s life through many ups and downs, illnesses and separation from Debbie.  He called the Quaker Meeting his family.

  

  Scott helped the meeting as much as he could.  He would ride a tractor style mower over the large area around George’s house.  He drove George to Half-yearly Meeting where he helped George set up the crafts activities for the children, when George could no longer do that by himself. 

Many people fondly remember the painting and decorating of the pine cones George had collected as one of these activities that Scott helped him with. For a joint outing of Gainesville and Ocala Friends at Wayside Park, he borrowed a friend’s boat and took us all on rides along the streams of Silver Springs.

Late in his life Scott suffered injuries and illnesses which required multiple hospitalizations and surgeries.  A brutal home invasion left him with only one kidney. An aortic aneurism was almost fatal. The scar tissue left from the motorcycle crashes made surgery impossible for any heart attack he might suffer.  He tenaciously held on to life in spite of his weakened body. He kept rebuilding his strength and resuming his active life after each bout of illness. His final illness was sudden and his death, on February 27, 2009 was unexpected.

Scott loved dogs and cooking and he had a knack for making us laugh.  He knew the meaning of friendship. He was willing to give of what he had and accepted the hand of another when it was offered.

MEMORIAL MINUTE

Memorial Minute for George Newkirk

George Newkirk was a member of Gainesville Friends Meeting from September 1972 until he died in July 2008.

George was born in 1918 in Quincy, Illinois and attended Quincy High School and Quincy College, now Quincy University. In fact, he organized the 60th reunion for his classmates at Quincy High.

From his youth George had a great interest in nature. He went swimming, hunting, hiking and camping whenever he could. At age 16 he lied about his age so he could join the National Guard.

He was in the army during World War II, but an accident kept him from being deployed with his unit and he was assigned to guard a prisoner of war camp in Colorado. George would regale us with stories of his experiences there, notably the time the Italians arrived. Immediately they were assigned to be the cooks. They complained that they had no Italian spices, so George set out to find a local restaurant to supply the camp with spices in exchange for cream and strawberries which the camp had in abundance. Soon the officers were coming to the enlisted men's mess hall to enjoy the new Italian food.

After the war with money from the G.I. Bill, George completed a Masters Degree in psychology at George Washington University. He later attended Georgetown University as well. He specialized in the rehabilitation of floundering educational institutions in 42 developing countries. He was sometimes called upon to explain the origin of cultural differences and conflicts, and how he felt they could be reduced.

George had been raised in the Roman Catholic Church, but as he grew older, he became disillusioned and by 1949 started seeking "a spiritual philosophy that would fit my needs." (from a Memorial Minute for Charles De Witt written by George) He found that spiritual home in the Langley Hill Friends Meeting.

The meeting was looking for property for a meetinghouse. His wife Emma, with whom he had two sons, was a member of a Lutheran Church which had property to sell. The original deed, when it had been a Methodist Church, stipulated that the property should be used for religious purposes. So, the purchase was mutually satisfactory. The stained glass windows, however, would have to give way to transparent glass which allowed the light to flood into the room. He later transferred his membership to the Florida Avenue Monthly Meeting in Washington, D. C.

George moved to Ocala in the late 1960's and worked as a school psychologist. He became a member of Gainesville Monthly Meeting by transfer and served for a term on the Ministry and Oversight Committee.

When the Daytona Beach Meeting was laid down in the 1970's, all of the property reverted to the yearly meeting. Gainesville Meeting wanted to have the chairs and the hymnals. George offered to get them by using a trailer on the back of his car.

Gene Beardsley and George went over to Daytona, loaded up the chairs and the hymnals and headed beach to Gainesville. On the way back, the trailer had a flat tire. As they were changing the tire, it started to rain, but they persevered and managed to drive the car through the forest and up to Gainesville. The chairs and hymnals were unloaded and placed in the meetinghouse for a very grateful meeting. The chairs were first used in the meeting room in the meetinghouse on 2nd Avenue and then later in the social room in the 38th Street meetinghouse.

This was a labor of love for which George and Gene should always be remembered, a durable contribution to the worship and fellowship of the meeting.

George started the Ocala Worship Group in 1979. He provided a house and started advertising. A food cooperative and a women's spirituality group were given the use of the house. He was very proactive in supporting good works and good people whenever he could.

Four people from the food co-op became interested in finding out about Quakerism. Two people responded to the advertisement, and on November 3 the first meeting was held to introduce information about the Religious Society of Friends.

George became very involved in Southeastern Yearly Meeting projects, notably the Quaker Center in Orlando known as Cisney House, an apartment building next to the Orlando Meetinghouse. He served on the Cisney House Committee from 1979 to 2002. It had been owned by Orlando Monthly Meeting before being sold to SEYM in 1980. Together with Morrie Trimmer he inspected the apartment complex to be able to report to the yearly meeting on the advisability of the purchase.

George served on the Board of Trustees of SEYM in the early 1980's. He served on the SEYM Ministry and Worship Committee in the mid 1980's and spent much effort in involving the committee in resolving differing concepts of Quaker practice in the Ocala Worship Group which at that time was under the care of Gainesville Monthly Meeting. George's activities in the Ocala Worship Group in the early 1980's included planning Meetings for Learning, helping to start up monthly business meetings, and serving as recording clerk. He had a strong interest in outreach and in strengthening both the Ocala Worship Group and Gainesville Monthly Meeting as caring communities. His favorite Bible verse was "Work is love made visible," and he tried through his work to show his love.

George loved working for the children at Half Yearly Meeting. He would collect pine cones and bring them along with green paint, spray snow and lots of beads and things the children could use to turn the pine cones into small Christmas trees to decorate their homes. He also brought materials to help with the cupcake and cookie decorating activities.After the Ocala Worship Group was laid down, George formed what was known as the Ocala Friends Meeting. This was a worship group that had no formal ties to any monthly meeting or the yearly meeting.

His wife Emma died in 1996. In his later years, George was a member of the Greater Ocala Ministerial Association and Marions for Peace in which organization he was actively involved in vigils, rallies and demonstrations for peace, holding up his "War is not the Answer" sign and later, after his knee surgery, leaning on it. When standing became difficult, he would continue demonstrating in his wheel chair.

  George married Marie Elena in 2000. She would help him prepare for Meeting for Worship in their home and help him go to his medical appointments and social events.

George passed away on July 2, 2008 at his home in Ocala. He will be remembered for his sense of humor, his great story telling, his loving interest in the children of the yearly meeting and his devotion both to Gainesville Monthly Meeting and to the business of Southeastern Yearly Meeting.

CIRCLE OF LOVE

This drawing of the breaking of Silence at a Quaker Meeting appeared on the website of the Miami Meeting. I was curious about who had created the image and wondered it it was drawn by the artist Bobby Buskirk who had formerly been a member of Miami Meeting. Bobby's daughter Sally Gillespie who was my friend in the Friends Meeting of Ocala for many years was able to confirm that the picture was done by her mother.
 
Bobby and Phil Buskirk were married in Miami after Phil moved there in 1974. It was a second marriage for both of them. Bobby's first husband Robert Slane had died in 1972. Phil was divorced from Frances Hamer Kanzler to whom he was married from 1942 until the early seventies. Phil and Bobby were distant cousins and knew each other as children in Palisades, Michigan. Bobby was born August 18, 1916 and named Rosamond Mack Clark. She and Robert Slane parented four children, Mack, Robert, Sally and Susanna. Phil and Frances were also the parents of four, Charles, Philip, James, and Martha.
 
Phil Buskirk had been a powerful spokesperson for peace, justice and reconciliation as he worked for AFSC for many years. He held the position of Field Director for AFSC in Israel from 1959 to 1961. Bobby became a Quaker and joined the Miami Meeting after her marriage to Phil. She was always interested in art. She drew pastel portraits of people and animals.  She designed wood block prints, and she painted in oil and acrylic paints. Her love of art was passed on to her daughter Sally who became an art teacher in public schools.
 
Later Phil and Bobby moved south from Miami to the town of Florida City very near Homestead and the Everglades National Park. In 1994 extreme south Florida was in the path of Hurricane Andrew which became the costliest storm to hit the US up to that time. The home of Bobby and Phil was destroyed along with 25,000 other homes in Miami-Dade County. Instead of rebuilding in south Florida Bobby and Phil moved to higher ground in central Florida. They settled in the small town of McIntosh 18 miles south of Gainesville. Although they became a part of the Gainesville Friends Meeting their time in central Florida was short. Phil died in 1995 and Bobby's death followed the next year.

Sally said of her mother, "She loved Quaker Meeting.  She enjoyed getting to know the people.  She loved making up poems about people and playing word games and family games.  She liked to laugh and she loved to read." One daughter followed her mother into art, the other became a college librarian.

   

FIND US

Link to Google Map.

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QUAKER MAPS

A valuable resource for locating Quaker Meeting is the website QuakerMaps.com. Although the data may not be complete at present, the webmaster responds to emails and updates his site in short order. We are grateful to him for updating the data for the Friends Meeting of Ocala. 

A wealth of information is available on Quaker Maps. Visit soon and often to keep up with Friends Meetings throughout the United States

Although we are an unofficial meeting of Quakers, the Southeastern Yearly Meeting (SEYM) has included us in their directory and invites us to participate in their activities.
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GEORGE NEWKIRK

George Newkirk was a prominent member of the Friends Meeting of Ocala. He was committed to keeping a Quaker presence in Ocala. He worked to support the Quaker movement from the time he moved to Ocala in the 1960's until his death in 2008. 

Before he retired to Ocala he had been a member of the Langley Hill Friends Meeting in McLean Virginia outside of Washington DC. He and his first wife Emma had located the church in McLean which became the meeting house for the Langley Hill Friends. I love the story of how the Quakers were able to purchase the building in McLean because the original deed stipulated that it could only be used for religious purposes. The property would have attracted many buyers on the open market and sold for a handsome price. The Quakers removed the stained glass windows to let the light in, eliminated the pulpit, and arranged the pews so that the the participants were in a circle.

More detail about George's life can be read in this Obituary from the Ocala Star Banner.