DURHAM, N.C. - As we near the end of a year that included one of the worst economic crises in history, it will be even more meaningful for Americans to sit down at their Thanksgiving tables to say grace as a way to feel connected to each other, says a Duke University theologian.

"Especially in lean times, we're acutely aware that our individual lives are bound up inextricably with each other's and that all of us - -- family, friends, church, country, world, even God - -- are in this thing together," says Stephen Chapman, associate professor of the Old Testament at Duke Divinity School.

He says grace is a way of acknowledging our relationship with others and with God.

"We say grace at Thanksgiving because, deep down, we realize we're not alone," says Chapman, an expert on issues of canon, hermeneutics and scriptural interpretation."