I like to see ice cubes in the glass of water provided for me. It’s how I know this is fresh water and not the water left over from the week before – ice cubes don’t keep that long. They are usually mostly melted by the time I get up to preach anyway.

A discreet sip, not a gulp, should be sufficient. And should be done without comment.

I completely agree with you about the way drinking from those “sport bottles” makes an unpleasant face. Not just unpleasant, but unattractive. It always makes me think of Freudian views on oral fixation. Ew.

Preaching in July in Georgia in an un-air conditioned church in a 100% polyester Geneva gown? Check.
Preaching in Georgia (air conditioning this time) in the Big Black Dress with 103 degree fever? Check.
Drooling through a Christmas sermon because you have Bell’s Palsy and you can’t feel half your face? Check, and icky.

In each case, I managed with nothing more than a glass of water and a folded handkerchief: for blotting my brow or mouth, or as a cold compress. Short of an accommodation for a very frail or formerly heat-injured person — and I had octogenarians in that un-air conditioned church — I can’t think you’d need much more, and I would me mortified if someone knew I was wearing and drinking from an icy water bag in the pulpit. Adversity may not add to character, but it does add an incentive for briefer, tighter sermons.

But I’d caution against the wide mouthed nalgene bottle plan. I did it once, and only once. Because somehow I managed to pour half the bottle on my face and down my front.

In the middle of a sermon.

fortunately it was a class and not in front of a congregation. But it did get captured on video. very classy, let me tell you. did wonders for my ministerial authority.

:)

Due to some strange church politics, I wind up using clear plastic cups in the pulpit. But then, I have a very awkward pulpit that I have to deal with. Sigh.

In any case, I do remember when I was a seminarian, getting a sip of water from a paper cup I had hidden in a pulpit where I was guest preaching. After the service a retired minister in the congregation told me, “Don’t drink from a paper or styrofoam cup while in the pulpit. It can evoke images of trash in people’s minds, and doesn’t look at all classy. Use a small juice glass, and make sure it is clear and not colored glass. It’s a good tactic for keeping yourself hydrated, while also minimizing the potential of the glass to distract congregants from your sermon.