Dear Friends,
Walking Henry early Monday morning, after 24 hours of Sunday snow, I was surprised by a bald eagle. It was catching the stiff west wind blowing across the Robert Fife Conservation Land. The morning sun was still low enough that it lit up the underside of its wings and its bright white tail and head as it banked over the woods and headed north. And then it was gone. Henry was busy smelling a branch in the road, but I felt happy and exhilarated. This felt like a blessing, like I was blessed to glimpse a creature so wild and so different from my dog on his leash.
March is town meeting month in Canterbury, and annual meeting month at Canterbury United Community Church. So as I write this, I know that volunteers and elected officers of the town and the church are busy preparing annual reports and preparing to support and promote our traditions of shared governance. And we all prepare by recalling that direct democracy requires something of each of us: time, presence, mutual patience and politeness, respect for the moderator, and of course, Robert’s Rules of Order! When we do show up, whether or not we vote, we strengthen our common life, a life we share with neighbors we know and neighbors we don’t know at all. 
Direct democracy, where each citizen or member has a voice and a vote, is not for lightweights! We encounter people who disagree with us (yes, even in church!).  Really listening to neighbors discuss issues that might not involve us requires muscular patience and curiosity.  At some point we’ll need to exercise our self-restraint, remembering that ancient rule: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you! 
But even when the meeting slows to a glacial crawl and we’ve run out of coffee, still we persevere with faith that this democratic decision-making ultimately strengthens us as individuals and as a community. This is true at CUCC, and in the Town of Canterbury.
On March 9, when the church convenes after worship, we will discuss and members will vote on church policies, on the church’s budget, and on officers and committees. Our church recognizes no human higher authority to umpire or judge our diverse perspectives and opinions. It is we the people who must practice reconciliation and compassion, and we who must cooperate with kindness, relying on the Grace of God and the movement of each person’s conscience, as we head into the next year of our shared life of faith. 
~ In Peace, Becky

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