Out of the depths, O God, we call to you

Out of the depths, O God, we call to you. Ruth C. Duck* (1947-2024). Written in 1988 for a conference on ‘Women and the Word’ held at the Anna Howard Shaw Center, Boston University (named after a pioneer of women’s rights, and dedicated to ‘the promotion of structures and practices that empower women and honor diversity’). It was subsequently included in Duck’s Dancing in the Universe (1992). Although it begins with the De Profundis of Psalm 130, the hymn goes on to sing of ‘this community’ (in the last line of each stanza) and of ‘wounds of the past’ (stanza 1 line 2) and the sharing of ‘grief and rage’ (stanza 2 line 3). One of Duck’s most outspoken hymns, it is found in the Chalice...