Rails - Apr 2006 - Using render_to_string in other custom classes

I have a project where I''m publishing files. Once when the user  
clicks publish via a URL and one when an email is received that tells  
the app they want to publish again. Because the publishing requires  
templates I have them in there own views. The problem is when I want  
to publish via email I don''t want to ask the controller to render the  
views.

This is what I tried to do:

#/lib/myclass.rb

class foo
   def build
     @rts = ActionController::Base.new
     file_x
     file_y
   end

   def file_x
     contents = @rts.render_to_string( path_to_my_template, self )
     # and then I''d make the file etc
   end

   def file_y
     contents = @rts.render_to_string( path_to_my_template, self )
     # and then I''d make the file etc
   end
end

the problem is that render_to_string is protected. Anyone know how I  
can get around this?

--Duncan