History of the Oak Ridge Ulster Project

 

    Following an extended pastoral exchange with a clergyman in Manchester, Connecticut, Canon Kerry Waterstone, a Church of Ireland (Anglican) priest, received a request from two congregations in that city asking him to formulate a plan in an effort to help ease the tensions in Northern Ireland. After the experience of his own family in America, Canon Waterstone felt that the attitudes of teens from Northern Ireland might be changed. If they could see and experience the way Americans have learned to live together in their “melting pot” society, they might influence the future in Northern Ireland.
 

    After obtaining approval from church leaders, Canon Waterstone travelled into Northern Ireland to secure the cooperation of clergy willing to help in the implementation of his plan. Forming the original guidelines for the Project, he focused on the prejudices and stereotypes, which are the root cause of the bitter strife labeled Catholic/Protestant. Nationally, the Project began in the United States in 1975, and in 2008 there will be 18 Projects here in the United States.