Preach, preaches, preaching, praught?

On Sunday, I was aked to preach at the united service at the Lancaster University Chaplaincy Centre. The service took the form of a Roman Catholic Mass, but was attended by members from all denomintions represented in the Centre. We followed the RC lectionary, and as such, we celebrated the feast of Corpus Christi. So an Anglican preached at an ecumenical Mass on the subject of the eucharist.

Hmmm. No difficulties there then!

I'll post the sermon when I've located a the final copy - I'm told it wasn't terrible - but the point I wanted to make in this post is one about comfort zones. Sunday's sermon was only my second ever attempt at preaching and, unsurprisingly, I still felt like I was well outside my confort zone.

The thing that highlighted this feeling for me was my inclusion of music in the sermon. I'm well accustomed to teaching and leading unaccompanied singing with congregations, and I noticed that the moment I started to teach the song was the moment I started to relax a little. Until this point, I felt locked to the script and quite nervous. As soon as the music started, I felt more able to go off-piste and make a few impromptu observations and witticisms.

It occurred to me that this is all about what I am used to, and what I am comfortable with. I lead people in song on a weekly basis, but I've only ever preached* twice. I'm hoping this is something that will change as I have more opportunities to preach, and according to what I know about Westcott House, I will have many such opportunities during my training.

* Does anyone else think that the past tense of 'preach' should be 'praught'? As in 'teach' and taught'.