Living spirit, holy fire

Living Spirit, holy fire. Ruth C. Duck* (1947– ). This hymn was written in 2003. It first appeared in Duck’s collection Welcome God’s Tomorrow (Chicago, 2005). The hymn then appeared in three collections in the United States in the same year, Gather,Third Edition (Chicago, 2011), Worship, Fourth Edition (Chicago, 2011), and Worship and Song (Nashville, 2011).  Duck had been conducting research at Pilgrim Congregational Church, Oak Park, Illinois, a United Church of Christ (UCC) congregation working to become multicultural. She writes: ‘the congregation desired to go beyond singing one another’s songs to hearing each person’s story and developing true respect and inclusion in the way they...