08/25/11

 

Biographical Information: Ruth C. Duck

Ruth Duck is professor of worship at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, where she has been on the faculty since 1989; from 1991-5 and 2003-5 she was also dean of the chapel at the seminary.  She is vice president for 2006 of the North American Academy of Liturgy, an organization of liturgical scholars, and will be president in 2007.  Duck has written books and articles about Christian worship, including Gender and the Name of God: The Trinitarian Baptismal Formula (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1991) and Finding Words for Worship (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1995).   With Patricia Wilson-Kastner, she authored Praising God: The Trinity in Christian Worship (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1999).

Christians of many denominations in several countries have sung hymn texts by Ruth Duck.  Twelve of her hymns are in the 1995 United Church of Christ (U.S.A.) hymnal; eleven appear in the 1995 Chalice Hymnal (Disciples of Christ).  Her texts are also included in Presbyterian, Baptist, Mennonite/Brethren, United Methodist, Reformed Church in America, and United Church of Canada hymnals, among others.  Dancing in the Universe, a book of her hymn texts (with tunes by various composers), was published in 1992 by G.I.A.  The Pilgrim Press published Circles of Care, a second collection of her hymn texts, in 1998.  G.I.A. published another volume of her texts, Welcome God’s Tomorrow, in 2005.

Duck received the doctor of theology degree in worship and theology from Boston University School of Theology in 1989.  Her other degrees include the M.A. in Theology (Liturgy) (University of Notre Dame, 1987); the M.Div. and an honorary Doctor of Divinity (Chicago Theological Seminary, 1973 and 1983); and a B.A. in Christian Education (Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee, 1969).  At the UCC General Synod in 2003 she received the Antoinette Brown award, named after the first woman ordained in the U.S., in 1853.  The award, given to two women every other year, honors the contributions that women can make through ordained ministry in varied settings.

Duck edited the hymn collection Becoming One, with Linda Clark as project director, as well as Everflowing Streams: Songs for Worship with Michael Bausch (1981).  She has also edited or co-edited books of worship resources, including Touch Holiness (with Maren Tirabassi, 1990), Bread for the Journey (1981), and Flames of the Spirit (1985).  She served on the committee for the Chalice Hymnal of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

Duck has taught classes, lectured, and led workshops on worship and hymnody in the United States, Canada, and Scotland for seminaries, musicians’ groups, and other groups of several denominations as well as ecumenical groups.   In fall 1999, she lectured in the Netherlands to a national meeting of theologians as well as at the University of Kampen, the Netherlands.

Born in Washington, D.C. in 1947, with roots in Tennessee, Ruth Duck grew up in Annapolis, Maryland and Memphis, Tennesee.  She lives in Wilmette, Illinois, with her partner Ovaldo Buntin, a retired teacher in the Chicago Public Schools.  They enjoy watching birds as they migrate by Lake Michigan.

This site was last updated 08/15/06