and a good time was had by all

I just realised that I hadn't posted any comments on my preaching experience last Sunday at Queen's College chapel.

firstly I need to point out that the Dean of Chapel (who invited me to preach there) is in fact my faculty adviser from Theological College, and part of my assessment for formation for ministry is to preach two sermons during the year which are assessed by my faculty adviser.. So this occasion was one of these.

The sermon itself went rather well, I thought. I preached on the account of the Feeding of the 5000 in John's gospel, and started by thumping the ambo*, and shouting "It's a miracle!!" (and received a number of comments afterwards about how startling that was... to which I replied "Well, noone sleeps when I preach!" :-)

But the most significant thing for me was realising how much I enjoy that style of worship (formal, ordered) in the environment of a gorgeous chapel such as Queens. I also enjoyed the music, largely provided by the Queen's College Choir (which is not surprising, as the choir made up the bulk of the congregation at chapel, which adds a whole new meaning to the term "preaching to the choir"!)

I've been thinking that I might like to worship there in the evenings more often (and there has also been a little pressure from some quarters, to encourage me to join the choir, which is also a somewhat attractive prospect)

*an ambo is like a double-sided lectern (a word which I had never encountered before this year, but now I know the difference between a lectern, pulpit and ambo! Gotta love theological training :-)