Our Meetings are each a community. Each is situated in wider communities – the Area Meeting, the Yearly Meeting, and let us never forget the wider community, beyond Friends, in which our Quaker communities sit.

Community , as a word, is obviously related to commune . As a noun, a commune is a group of people that share something, usually property. As a verb, with a slightly different (but closely related) etymology, it is often used in a spiritual sense for a sort of silent communication , often with something bigger than a person – as in communing with nature, a divinity, and so on. It can also refer to other sorts of intimate communication, or taking of communion in the Christian Eucharist.

Another related word is common . A commune hold their property in common . A community is a group bound together by something in common.

Building a strong, supportive community means holding more in common, rejoicing in that commonality, sharing more, and more thoroughly, and more joyously. There will always be the private, the personal – that is right and proper. Not everything can be shared. But we should share what we can, and share it with all good joy.

Written July 2019