The "Nantucket" Project?

To the editor: My mother was a long-time member of St. Paul Episcopal’s altar guild. As such she would set up the altar for the services and for special occasions such as baptisms, funerals, and weddings. As much as she enjoyed seeing the more lavish weddings, she also wondered why some celebrants would choose to be married in a church they did not belong to. It turned out that they wanted to be married in a beautiful church on Nantucket.

I bring this up in the context of The Nantucket Project, which has chosen Nantucket for its location but otherwise seems to have little to do with Nantucket, the community, or with the island’s pressing issues. In that sense, The Nantucket Project is like a destination wedding.

To be clear, I applaud The Nantucket Project for taking on the very tough issue of Middle East conflict. I am grateful that they thought to include Palestinian physicians who presumably worked in the conflict zone. But given the topic, why not hold the conference in Boston or New York?

This is an exclusive event. But is it also excluding? The price of attendance is high. 

So what is left of Nantucket in The Nantucket Project? Who from the year-round community was able to attend? What was the profile of the average attendee? In fairness, I can see from the photos of the fellows’ dinner that there was a degree of inclusivity. Maybe Nantucket should feel honored to be the site of such a prestigious conference. Maybe, too, Nantucket may be weary of being used for others’ agendas.

Maureen Searle