Live Oak Friends Meeting is an un-programmed Friends (Quaker) Meeting.
LOFM is affiliated with South Central Yearly Meeting, Bayou Quarterly Meeting and Friends General Conference.
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Houston Friends Meeting for Worship grew from a longing in the hearts of scattered Friends to find people of like mind and spirit with whom to share unprogrammed worship. We began as a Preparative Meeting under the care of Oklahoma City Meeting. We became an official Monthly Meeting on September 19, 1954, at the home of Walter and Myra Whitson (parents of present member Ruth Marsh). A painting of their home was in our meeting room on Alexander Street. Walter Whitson was the first clerk.
Live Oak Friends Meeting have met in many places over the years - in other homes, YWCA, a theater, a Mennonite church, and others. In time, members grew weary of all the moves and acquired in 1983 the property at 1003 Alexander Street. This event seemed to serve as a launching pad, and the meeting soon outgrew its facilities. This is particularly noticeable in the case of First Day School for our children. In 1983, there was one class. Today there are five. In the spring of 1995, LOFM sold the Alexander Street property and purchased raw land at 26th and Beavis. From 1995 until January 2001), LOFM met at SSQQ dance studio, in space graciously donated by Rick Archer, SSQQ owner and an LOFM member. As of February 2001, we are meeting in our new Meeting House at 1318 West 26th Street.
LOFM was approached in 1995 by James Turrell of Flagstaff, AZ - a well-known artist whose medium is light, and not incidentally, a Quaker - with an offer to design a "skyspace" for our new meetinghouse. LOFM worked with James Turrell and Leslie Elkins, our architect, to design this new meetinghouse, which is of interest not only for its spiritual qualities, but also its artistic qualities. The art community in Houston showed its support by contributing almost $1,000,000 in funds towards the design and construction of the new meetinghouse. Construction began in January 2001, and was completed in the fall of 2001.
During the early years, members were active in the civil rights movement (a cross was once burned on the lawn of the Whitsons). In 1962, the meeting gained some fame. Under the leadership of the writer Jan de Hartog, they served as hospital aides at Jefferson Davis Charity Hospital. Jan wrote a book about it entitled "The Hospital," and it become a worldwide bestseller. The book exposed the abuses of Houston's health service for the poor and led to eventual changes.
More recently, LOFM members have been involved in feeding the homeless and working in Texas prisons, and have been leaders in non-violent protest against the war in the Persian Gulf. A newer project involving a number of those in LOFM is the Alternatives to Violence Project. It was started by Quakers in New York State for the prisons there and now is used in prisons in 16 states and many countries. The program teaches methods for conflict resolution and dealing with violence.
For nearly a decade, LOFM has been involved in service at SEARCH (Service of the Emergency Aid Resource Center for the Homeless). LOFM volunteers help serve food on Saturday and make sandwiches for the SEARCH community outreach program.
In the mid-1990s, LOFM passed a minute registering the Meeting's official recognition of marriages between people of the same gender. Since that time, several gay and lesbian LOFM couples have married under the care of the Meeting.
