The loose communities that we find in spiritual or religious gatherings were once entirely ordinary to us, but now it seems more radical to join them, a brazen challenge to the strictures of the nuclear family, the tendency to stick within tight friendship groups, the shrinking away from the awe-inspiring. Congregations are elastic, stretching to t

As I get older, I am more and more concerned about nurturing a community around me, and happy to invest my time and energy into it – whether that’s my friends, family, neighbourhood or further afield. Even that is a selfish unselfish act in a sense. Doesn’t everyone yearn deep down for a sense of belonging?