Living as we do in a highly individualistic culture, it’s easy to forget that without the community around us, we are nothing. Until there is a crisis: flood, bomb, accident or public workers’ strike – then suddenly we regain our sense of ourselves as highly dependent upon others. What makes a good community? What is the church’s role in different kinds of communities: urban, rural, rich and poor? What have we to say in the arena of policy-making about housing, transport, culture and education?