EAT IT WITH "GRACE"

When did you last say grace with your family before a meal?

If it sounds very old fashioned, it is - or at least, the habit began centuries ago. Monks paused to thank God for their food in medieval monasteries, and in the Victorian and Edwardian households the family patriarch said grace. But the decline of organised religion, the hectic pace of modern life, the arrival of fast food and television has wiped away the practice from many homes.

All this may change, as this year some Anglican bishops and professors of theology are to urge Christians to revive the practice of saying grace before meals. They believe that "it could help social stability to gather round the table for meals... fast food eaten in front of a television has damaged family life."

A theologian, Janet Soskice of Jesus College, Cambridge, says: "Eating together is a symbolic gesture. It is a simple thing but means a great deal and shows the family is a little unit." David Stancliffe, Bishop of Salisbury, has urged Christian families to rediscover the saying of grace and connect earthly thing with the heavenly. Saying grace at home integrates life and worship. It is a recollection that food is a gift of God." So the revival of "grace" is to encourage people to be grateful for their food.

Many faiths, including Judaism, have a tradition of saying prayers at meal times. Nowadays, formal grace seems mainly limited to ancient institutions. "Saying grace is laid down in the book of statutes for the college" said Roger Greaves, the dean of Claire College, Cambridge. One grace used in the Parish Regiment runs "For good food, good friends and happy landings, thank God."

There can sometimes be agonised debate over whether or not to say grace. One Archbishop used to judge it as to whether or not there were potatoes on the table! He reasoned that meat and two veg merited grace, but a bowl of cornflakes probably did not!

MIKE EVERETT