Community: Belonging
and Unbelonging

Doing Theology Together

Community: Belonging and Unbelonging

Presented by Dr Mark Jennings

Everyone loves community – who doesn’t love community? – but there is also a dark side to community that we need to talk about.

The word “community” tends to conjure up positive images in the minds of most of us – a favourite television show (6 seasons and a movie!), a gathering of friends, fellowship, laughs, support, togetherness. Churches often position themselves as communities which form around the experience of the Triune God in worship, sacrament, and proclamation. Indeed, there can be little doubt that many people have found in their church community a connection which Robert Putnam has referred to as “social capital,” or that which can bridge the gaps between people of diverse backgrounds and bond us even more closely and richly to those with whom we are already connected.

But community also has a “shadow” side: for one thing, if some are to be “in” community, this implies that there will necessarily those who are “out” of community: inclusion’s reverse side is exclusion. And that’s not all – there are some communities which can act like “greedy institutions,” which draw people into a rich experience of belonging and participation, but demanding unquestioned allegiance in return. Those who experience such communities may report a deep grief in being abandoned – kicked to the kerb, as one person put it – for asserting an individuality intolerable to the group, discovering the limits of what they had presumed was an unconditional acceptance.

There is more – what if community can be understood in a completely different way, as an awkward configuration characterised more by “unbelonging.” Using this lens, communities such as churches or denominations cohere in an antagonistic constellations, somehow connected through a shared allegiance to confessional faith, but sharing very little else in common and without forming a sense of belonging. Research on this phenomenon, mainly focusing on the experiences of some migrant groups in their destination countries, exposes how community is actually “lived” – not necessarily as an ideal of loving unity, but more as an uneasy alliance of contested interests that somehow stumble along. This is community, not as it “should” be – but as it actually is.

If mature community is a worthwhile goal – and in the Christian tradition, perhaps even a requirement – then understanding community in all its facets can help us build and grow together, leaving room for disparity and genuine diversity. In addition, perhaps this can facilitate a clear-eyed approach where we can understand that no one ever guaranteed that life together was going to be easy. Join Associate Professor Mark Jennings and Dr Raisa Akifeva in an exploration of social theory and practice of community as sites of belonging and unbelonging.

Date:	Thursday 21 August 2025
Time:	10.30am - 3.30pm
Location:	Wollaston Theological College 5 Wollaston Rd, Mt Claremont
Cost:	$25 (includes lunch)

Payment to be made via direct debit. Details will be provided upon confirmation of registration.
For further information please email the college at info@wollaston.edu.au