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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The Live Oak Friends Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends ("Quakers") has made a commitment to combine their need for a place of worship with the needs of the Houston community. They have launched a self-directed effort to create not only a new meeting house, a contemplative space for spiritual renewal, but also a neighborhood center and a companion building to house a library and offices.
The Meeting purchased a wooded two-acre site in Houstons multi-ethnic Heights area, on 26th Street west of Shepherd between Bevis and Couch, and committed $467,000 of their resources to the project. An artistic component became an integral part of the plan when internationally renowned artist James Turrell, a birthright and practicing Quaker whose medium is light, offered to donate his work to the meeting house. Taking literally the Quaker belief of the "light within," Turrell has incorporated a "sky space" into the design of the meeting house. His work will bring the ever-changing light of nature into the meeting house as a visible substance.
With James Turrell's involvement, architect Leslie Elkinss dedication to light in her past work made her the perfect choice to design the complex. She has listened to the Meetings needs and feelings, to the surrounding community, to the wooded acres, and to James Turrell's art in drafting her plan for three clean and pure structures sympathetic to the neighborhood setting in which they will be built.
The meeting house (Phase I) will be used by the Live Oak Friends on First and Fourth Days (Sundays and Wednesdays) and will be open to the public. Visitors will have the opportunity to view James Turrell's art in a space and atmosphere appropriate to its meaning. In response to a needs assessment of the surrounding area conducted by the Live Oak Friends, the community center (Phase II) has been designed to accommodate activities such as after-school, senior citizen and United Way programs, and meetings of groups including the Boy and Girl Scouts and Alcoholics Anonymous. It will also provide facilities for First Day school and other functions of the Meeting. The companion building (Phase III) will house not only a library and offices, but also modest living quarters for a caretaker.
To help the Meeting raise the necessary funds for the expanded project an international Steering Committee was formed. Though most of the members are not Quakers, each has committed energy and resources towards making the Project a reality. With 91% of our Phase I goal in hand, Bellows Construction will break ground for the meeting house in January of 2000. Construction is expected to be complete at the end of July 2000. A public opening of the meeting house, with James Turrells light installation, is planned for October of 2000, pending obtaining the necessary occupancy permits.
With the help of many, the Live Oak Friends will fashion a place of peace, a center for community outreach and neighborhood activities, and a memorable aesthetic experience for all.
