At the Albans Trev and Lawrence dinner last Saturday I was asked to say grace. In these days of self service (which have made the food so much better) formal grace in Hall is a rarity. We were sitting down to a meal served to the tables so grace was said.
As a CP I remember trying on the first occasion I said grace to inject meaning into the prayer with disastrous results. The duty Master - who was one if the chaplains - told me in future just to get it over with, which I duly did. "All on one breath!" was the rule.
So last Saturday night I duly said grace all in one breath as of old. Someone asked me if I shouldn't gave given it more meaning...
There is a view in church circles that one should try and reduce ones own influence on a text by striving to remove too much meaning from the reading of a text. But even in a sung liturgy some of the inflexion of the celebrant will come through. While a reading should not be a performance, I don't think reading in a monotone helps understanding. Most churches have a better acoustic and a more forgiving audience than Hall at lunchtime, and since the Holy Spirit allows our voices to carry the Word of the Lord, He also gives grace that it may be heard. Despite our voices - or because of them.
