State of the Meeting 2000

Annual Report of Live Oak Friends Monthly Meeting, Houston, TX of the South-Central Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

February 23, 2000

This year has been one of great searching and change for Live Oak Friends Meeting, as construction on our new meeting house begins, and with it, the need to prepare for the transition to new meeting space and responsibilities. Our Meeting has been in temporary quarters for five years, working hard to design a home and raise funds to construct it, while continuing to worship and study together, care for one another, and listen for calls to service. The process has been complicated by our decision to include worship space which incorporates an art installation by deeply committed Arizona artist and Friend, James Turrell, and by our acceptance of donations of time and funds from community members who were not part of the Meeting. By the beginning of this year, the strain of worshipping in facilities that did not meet the needs of some participants, the lack of time and energy to attend to our spiritual growth, the effort of working so hard on a difficult and complicated project, and the stress of raising funds for construction without adequate communication and coordination both within the Meeting and between the Meeting and those who were unfamiliar with Quaker business methods, had taken its toll on the spirit and unity of the Meeting.

During the spring and summer, we examined our concerns through a series of first day schools which involved our community in worshipful and caring dialog. The Oversight and Worship and Ministry Committees took the concerns raised under this process and increased the frequency of committee meetings to have time to consider these concerns and other day to day matters. Our increased clarity about the sources of conflict within the Meeting led to a series of workshops with Oversight, Worship and Ministry and Nominating committees, about Meeting guidelines for Meeting clerks and clerks of committees, that resulted in the drafting of a Meeting procedures manual. While committing these understandings to writing in this way, much of the benefit has already been achieved through the deep searching and worshipful dialog, leading to increased understanding and trust in our community.

The center of our spiritual life continues to be the meeting for worship. Both the spoken word and the silence continue to nourish our community, although some feel there is less spoken ministry than in the past. This fall we adjusted our schedule to allow meeting for worship to be the first activity on first days. The children participate in meeting for worship for the first twenty minutes, then depart for their religious education classes. The adult first day school takes place after meeting for worship, which has led to an increase in attendance. We have found that the silence during meeting for worship for business is also deepened by having it follow meeting for worship. Mid-week meeting for worship continues to flourish after moving to a location more accessible for disabled members and attenders.

Our Meeting has been blessed with new members this year from among a large number of dedicated, long-time attenders who take active part in the work of the Meeting. During the year we welcomed into membership Joanne Go and Jane Steele, and welcomed back Allen and Polly Clark, and Jane Campbell, returning from parts distant. We miss the warmth and generosity of Effie Feld, who moved to Pennsylvania after the death of her husband, Benjy Feld in February after a long illness. Benjy was a greatly loved member of Meeting, and a memorial meeting for him was held in March that was a very moving experience for the many who attended. Yvonne Boeger asked that her membership be transferred to Kennett Square Meeting, Pennsylvania. Sheilah Kelly has moved to Louisiana, but her friendly presence returns to us on visits. Ann Kloeckner has moved to Austin; we wish her well and hope that Austin Friends enjoy her contributions to meeting life, as much as we have. The meeting remembered and celebrated the life of Garnet Guild, a former member of the meeting, who died on October 16, 1999, in Silver City, N.M. We look forward to welcoming old friends to a homecoming weekend at the time of the dedication of our new meeting house. We are continuing to foster community in the Meeting by sponsoring the ‘friendly eights’ program of informal meals and activities in groups of eight or so people. A highlight of this year was a friendly supper hosted by the Worship and Ministry committee, at which approximately 63 people enjoyed food and fellowship.

The Meeting continues to seek ways to integrate the children more fully into the life of the Meeting. Children’s first day school has flourished this year thanks to the many dedicated teachers who have spent much time preparing for their classes. Children’s first day has focused on the Bible this year. For some of the children it is their first introduction, and they are listening and questioning with great interest. In the younger age-group classes, the combination of stories and discussion with busy hands, has led to many interesting projects and regular attendance. The Middle School group is harder to pull in, both due to their busier schedules and diverse interests. The teens planned and enjoyed a SCYM campout in January, combining a get-together with service by clearing brush at the Aransas Wildlife Refuge. The children have been active participants in other service projects such as bicycle donations to Omega House, an AIDS care facility, and the clean up of ‘Little Thicket Park’ and our newly acquired ‘Little House’, soon be moved onto our land to serve as a community building. We have a wonderful core group of child care volunteers who have enriched the life of the children in Meeting by their dedication.

Religious education for adults has blossomed this year with a series of topics that has included spiritual, social and environmental concerns. A three part series on ‘Perspectives on Jesus’ took us from the Acts of the Apostles to the biblical views of early and present-day Quakers. We heard speakers on gun control, violence and environmental law. The children joined us for discussing the concerns of our meeting community, and wonderful intergenerational events were ‘the web of life’ demonstration and the story ‘The Man Who Planted Trees’ presented by a neighbor and longtime friend of LOFM, Kent Keith. A three-part series addressed racism and the Religious Society of Friends. We learned about African American contributions to Friends and addressed the latent racism that exists in US society and in our meeting.

Social concerns of the meeting have been addressed by an active Peace and Social Action committee. This year’s activities emphasized humanitarian aid and education over efforts toward social change. We continue our ‘Quaker sandwich making’ activities for SEARCH, a program for homeless people, and have supported the efforts of Edwin Perez from Guatemala to get resources for his program for rural dental health, ARIDEN. Several Meeting members work at the SEARCH center and the Lord of the Streets Episcopal Mission for the homeless; others volunteer at these places addressing a great need in our society. We are currently helping the Alagics, a refugee family from Kosovo, and children’s first day made up thirty relief ‘Kits for Kosovo’. This involvement led to a first day school on the ‘Faith of Islam’ by a special speaker, in our efforts to better understand the faith of the Alagic family. Often Peace and Social Action efforts have thus been combined with first day school programs. Meeting community members appeared at a vigil for casualties from the School of the Americas, and a peace candelight vigil also attended by the Mennonites. Letter-writing campaigns have continued to address concerns expressed in ‘action letters’ from The Friends Committee on National Legislation.

For the past five years a dedicated group of people have worked on the planning and finance committees which oversee the design, financing and now, construction, of our new meeting house. Other Friends have contributed their time and efforts to the Meeting House Project Board. Hopefully the burden of these responsibilities will be transformed into pure delight at the realization of our home. With the large amounts of money involved, some from donors outside the meeting, the Meeting community has relied on the good sense, construction know-how and financial and legal advice of many members and attenders, for whom we feel very blessed. The finance committee has reenergized to take a key role in helping Meeting proactively manage its finances. At the last minute, heaven dropped into our hands a ‘little house’ which we bought at a very reasonable price, across the street from our building site. We moved it there to serve as a much needed adjunct building. This year has been a good one for Live Oak Friends Meeting. It is a year in which great change and decisions were made. The clerk has been helped by the many people who have held him in the Light, and by the associate clerk, recording clerks, past clerks, the monthly newsletter (Acorn) editors, and the many clerks and members of committees. We look forward to the next year of new challenges as we open our home to the community at large, as a place of peace and quiet reflection for greater things to come.

Compiler: Bill Mueller, Clerk