UK NEWS

GRACE IS DITCHED BEFORE DINNER... IT’S TOO RELIGIOUS

NEWNHAM COLLEGE: Grace will no longer be said

Friday May 15,2009

By Geoff Maynard

STUDENTS at a Cambridge University college will no longer say their traditional Christian grace before dinner – because it is too religious.

The Latin verse has been scrapped and replaced with a secular version to reflect the multi-faith make-up of the all-female college.

Traditionally, undergraduates at Newnham thanked “Jesum Christum dominum nostrum” – which translates as “Jesus Christ our Lord” – at the start of formal evening meals held once a week in term time.

The new grace, written by students, reads: “Pro cibo inter esurientes, pro comitate inter desolatos, pro pace inter bellantes, gratias agimus”.

It means: “For food in a hungry world, for companionship in a world of loneliness, for peace in an age of violence, we give thanks”.

It will go on trial to ensure it has the approval of other students. But Classics professor Mary Beard said while the idea was well intentioned, it was an “insult” to Latin.

Prof Beard, fellow of Newnham, wrote in her blog that although, “there were no obvious grammatical howlers in the Latin”, she just “couldn’t stomach it”.

She added: “The undergraduates’ rewrite was a classic case of disguising a load of well-meaning platitudes in some posh dead language, which was actually an insult to that dead language.”

However, she admitted it was difficult to have a grace that satisfied students of all faiths.

The grace commonly used in recent years was developed by the late art historian and archaeologist Jocelyn Toynbee, who was named an honorary fellow of the college in 1962.

According to tradition the person presiding over a formal hall has the discretion to choose which form of grace to use.

Dr Terri Apter, senior tutor at Newnham, said the college is considering alternatives for grace.