Faculty Directory

Ruth Meyers

Hodges-Haynes Professor of Liturgics

Core Doctoral Faculty
At the GTU since
2009
(510) 204-0720

I am passionate about the power of worship to form and transform communities of faith. My earliest memories of worship are the early-morning midweek Lenten services I attended with my dad and older brother, and Saturdays in the church sacristy with my mother as she prepared for the next day's liturgies. I chose liturgy as an academic discipline because I believed that studying worship would give me a window into what individuals and communities in different times and places believed about God. My doctoral work, a study of the development of the rites of baptism and confirmation in the 1979 Prayer Book, gave me an opportunity to explore the history of the Episcopal Church in the twentieth century. My current research, which focuses on the intersection of worship and mission, has been informed by study of contemporary congregations. Serving as Chair of the Episcopal Church’s Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music (2010-2015) and as a member of Task Force on the Study of Marriage (2016-2018) has led me into study of the history and theology of marriage in Christianity.

Degrees and Certifications

PhD, University of Notre Dame, 1992
MA, University of Notre Dame, 1989
MDiv, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, 1985

 

Curriculum Vitae

Research and Teaching Interests
  • Liturgical theology and missiology
  • Christian initiation
  • Worship in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion
  • Liturgical year       
  • Inculturation of the liturgy
  • Theology and rituals of marriage
Selected Publications
  • Praying Shapes Believing. Revised edition of Leonel Mitchell’s 1985 theological study of the 1979 Book of Common Prayer, Church Publishing, Inc., 2016
  • Missional Worship, Worshipful Mission, Eerdmans, 2014
  • “Worship,” in Ecumenical Missiology: Changing Landscapes and New Conceptions of Mission, edited by Kenneth R. Ross, Jooseop Keum, Kyriaki Avtzi, Roderick R. Hewitt, Regnum Edinburgh Centenary Series Vol. 35, Regnum Books and World Council of Churches, 2016
  • “Christian Marriage and Funeral Services as Rites of Passage,” Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2016 http://religion.oxfordre.com/
  • “Re-Imagining Confirmation,” in Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Theologies of Confirmation for the 21st Century, compiled by Sharon Ely Pearson, Church Publishing, Inc., 2014
  • “Who May Be Invited to the Table?” Anglican Theological Review, 2012
Courses Taught
  • Liturgical Methods Proseminar
  • Liturgics
  • Introduction to Worship