HIS advice has guided the way the Word of God has flowed, boomed and sometimes whispered from pulpits across the land.

And now the Church of Scotland's departing elocution expert has revealed the teachings which have prepared hundreds of nervous preachers to preach the gospel to their flocks.

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Richard Ellis is stepping down his role at Edinburgh University’s School of Divinity (New College) after 35 years of teaching ministers the tricks of public speaking and how to tell a story.

The 71-year-old, who has watched his students in action at more than 800 church services, said that the best advice was to learn poetry, keep scrap books, wear loose clothing and avoid being jolly.

Or more specifically, the Reverend I.M Jolly, the laconic creation of Scots comedian Ricki Fulton.

He said: “My main role was to enhance the voice that they had and to give them coaching on things like sustaining eye contact with the listeners, rhythm and pace, storytelling and gestures.

“I also advised on the structure of the sermon, how they might organise the material, how they might use humour and visual aids. I must say his Rev I.M.Jolly was a wonderful teaching aid.

"When I started in 1981, Rev I.M Jolly was at the height of his popularity and when I used to play clips to the candidates they immediately got the reference.

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“But I would not dream of using them now because no one under 75 would appreciate it. Besides it is irrelevant because there are no longer people in the Church who sound like Rev I.M Jolly to mock and satirise.”

Mr Ellis, who won a Bible reading prize at school, studied at the Guildhall School of Speech and Drama. He began his job in 1981, turning up at the interview with tousled hair and a shaggy beard.

He believes that the best sermons are given by those people who drink lots of water, learn how to breathe properly and don’t smoke.

He said: "“It has been wonderful. I planned to stay for three years but it has been a very interesting job.

“At my interview with Professor Duncan Forrester at New College, he leant across the table and said: “Mr Ellis we’re very keen to do something about the ‘Church of Scotland voice’.”

“There was then a very marked tendency to speak in a very modular, up and down sort of way. Then another minister said ‘we don’t want too much drama however Mr Ellis’

“I think they were a bit worried that this guy with a beard and longish brown hair was going to revolutionise the Church in some dramatic fashion.”

One of his predecessors in the post, which is known as the Fulton Lectureship, was the Scots character actor Alastair Sim, who went on to star in the St Trinian’s films.

Mr Ellis is due to move south to Lincoln, and takes with him a wealth of memories. However, despite his expertise in coaxing the best from his student's voices, he said that the most memorable sermon he heard in church owed as much to the weather as its delivery.

He said: “During the height of the Cold War in 1983, the candidate at Gorgie Parish Church in Edinburgh gave an apocalyptic sermon on the nuclear winter which was then being discussed.

“He got up and there were rumbles of thunder in the background. When he went up to the pulpit there was a flash of lightning and all the lights went out except for a small glow over the pulpit.

“He started this sermon with the lightning and the thunder playing about around him - It was absolutely enthralling.”

Mr Ellis hailed US President Barack Obama as one of the greatest orators of modern times, and urged anyone thinking of making a career where public speaking is required to take note.

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“He’s a master at the use of pause,” said Mr Ellis. “If you want to pose a rhetorical question in your sermon, you have to pause.”