Ruth Carolyn Duck (November 21, 1947 – December 26, 2024) was an ordained pastor in the United Church of Christ, a liturgical theologian and professor of worship who taught for 27 years at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.
In 1973, she was part of the committee at the Ecumenical Women's Center of Chicago that produced Because We Are One People, the first 20th century collection of original and adapted hymns that promoted the use of “non-sexist language”.
[4][6] Through her early experiences as a pastor, Duck noticed that the language used in worship books and hymnals to name God was, almost exclusively, masculine.
Brian Wren, a fellow hymnist, states that “Ruth Duck has consistently and persistently sought for worship language that expands our vision of the divine mystery and makes all human beings visible”.
[3] Since the 1970s, Duck composed, edited and adapted hymn text for Protestant and Roman Catholic hymnals in the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, Scotland and England.
[4][5] In her chapter about Ruth C. Duck in the book Primary Sources of Liturgical Theology, Robin Knowles Wallace states that “issues of justice, both local and global, shape her hymns and worship resources.”[1] Duck's concern for the use of alternative language for God is evident in her hymn writing where she consistently used universal and non-gendered language for God.