Memorial Meeting for Worship
for
Agnes Blackstone
Saturday June 21st at 2 pm
Please join us on Saturday June 21st at 2 pm when Plymouth Monthly Meeting will host a memorial Meeting for Worship for our beloved Agnes Blackstone who died on March 30th, 2025. The memorial will be held in the Meeting House and it will be blended online using Zoom Conferencing for family members and friends who cannot attend. The zoom login will be the same as is used for our weekly Meetings for Worship. If you do not have the login information, to obtain it send an email to: office@plymouthmeetingquakers.org
There will be a reception after the Memorial Worship held in the Annie H Wilson room to provide an opportunity for all to gather in the warm hospitality one with each other that Agnes taught us.
Below is the memorial minute for Agnes recorded during the Sixth Month, 2025 Business Meeting.
PLYMOUTH MONTHLY MEETING
OF THE
RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS
Plymouth Monthly Meeting records the passing of a vital member of our community in her 103rd year. Agnes Blackstone died March 30th, 2025. Her memorial meeting for worship was held on June 21st at Plymouth Monthly Meeting.
For more than 70 years Agnes has been a cherished member of Plymouth Monthly Meeting. Providing us guidance and centering in the living faith of Quakerism through the many changes that have occurred within the Religious Society of Friends and the wider world.
Agnes was raised in a Quaker family as a child of immigrants to the United States from England via Canada. Her father accepting a job offer during the Great Depression, brought the family from a small rural farm in Florida to George School in Bucks Pa, county. This transition from a rural one room school to a Quaker boarding school with well to do Philadelphia Quaker students was a considerable change for Agnes. Those George School years, however, were transformative for her, and she would say some of her happiest years.
Agnes faithfully attended weekly Meetings for worship, most often sitting on the same bench, continuing even occasionally until she was 102 years old. She did not often offer vocal ministry, rather she grounded our worship in her prayerful attentiveness to the Divine Spirit. It was rare that she missed worship and as she grew older, and the absences became more regular, our times of worship were changed.
Worship was just one part of her living faith. Agnes’ ministries were many and not limited to Plymouth. At one time in her life she served on all committees of our Monthly Meeting expect perhaps property and trustees. Her long-term service on Care and Concern, until well into her 90’s best illustrates the saying that she was a Lady, in both Dress and Manner. Agnes was always properly dressed in shined shoes, hose and an appropriate dress for the occasion. Her table was set with China plates, and with tea sandwiches and a formal dessert. This was not the putting on of a show, it was respect for her guests and hospitality coming from her heart. Her Manner, that of speaking forthright truth with love to those she was speaking to or to the object of the discussion, grounded our committee meetings and sometimes turned them towards the better path. Her gifts of participation in the works of organizations were not limited to Plymouth Monthly Meeting. The wider Quaker circle benefited from this proper Friend; Foulkeways Board, Home and Care committee of Abington Quarter, AFSC clothing drives, and its sewing circles and many others. FGC conferences depended on Agnes and other Quaker woman who had the gift for organization to allow registration and room assignments to occur seamlessly in pre-computer days.
The world changed a lot in 100 years and Agnes was a constant in this change for us. Through the turbulent times that split the Meeting or our wider society, she kept a steady presence in the Meeting. Each Firstday there in prayer with us, she would be listening for the way forward with compassion and quiet humility.
Agnes’ spirit is with us. Her spirit, like so many before her, will continue to join us as we worship in the Meeting House. For those of us who were grown up through her, we will impart a bit of her compassion and hospitality to those who we serve as mentors too. We will all, at our best, strive to be a proper Lady in both Dress and Manner, each in our own way – both Ladies and Gentlemen.