Suzi Farrant and Darren Philip, recent graduates of the MTh Ministry Studies programme at Aberdeen University, have been commissioned by the Church of Scotland to write a book on Intergenerational Church that will be published next year by St Andrews Press.
Darren, who serves as a Youth and Children’s Development Worker at Livingston United Parish Church and completed the programme in 2020, wrote his final dissertation on ‘Children in an Intergenerational Church Community: Lessons for the Church of Scotland from the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Meanwhile, Suzi, the Young People and Young Adult’s Development Worker of the Church of Scotland, who finished the course earlier this year, wrote her dissertation on ‘Youth Ministry in the Church of Scotland: Lessons from Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Eight Theses on Youth Work’.
Now, Darren and Suzi have been invited by the Kirk to collaborate on a new book project that will become part of the Church of Scotland’s faith action plan. Their ambitious plan for the book is to call the church back to a more ancient way of being by establishing a theological rationale, based upon the works of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for rediscovering intergenerational community, and providing some practical steps towards making this journey back to the future.
The Aberdeen graduates are excited and thrilled to have received this opportunity. Suzi enthused, ‘I am an avid reader and having learnt so much through what others have written, it feels like an appropriate time to put my own thoughts onto paper to help others into the conversation on intergenerational church. The prospect of actually sitting in front of the computer and getting chapters written is rather daunting, but all that I have learnt through my Masters study, in particular in the process of writing my recent dissertation, should stand me in good stead.’