The psychological-type profile of practising British druids compared with Anglican churchgoers

This study employs psychological-type theory to profile practising British Druids and to compare their profile with that of Anglican churchgoers. A sample of 75 participants at a camp organised by The Order of Bards, Ovates and Druids in celebration of the Mid-Summer Festival completed the Francis Psychological Type Scales. Compared with the profile of 327 Anglican churchgoers previously published by Francis, Duncan, Craig and Luffman, the Druids were significantly more likely to prefer intuition and less likely to prefer sensing. The implications of these data are discussed for understanding the contemporary appeal of Druidry. Overall the Druids prefer introversion (61%), intuition (64%), feeling (56%) and judging (68%)

Rational Synthesis and Characterization of Tetravalent Cerium Coordination Compounds

In order to expand the synthetic chemistry of molecular cerium(IV) complexes, we explored chemical oxidation of cerium(III) starting materials and we functionalized cerium(IV) precursors using protonolysis, metathesis, and silyl halide exchange reactions. Using these synthetic strategies, we isolated two families of cerium(IV) coordination compounds and compared the spectroscopic and electrochemical consequences of varying ligand coordination to the cerium(IV) cation. Despite the highly ionic nature of the metal ligand bonds, we found that properties of these cerium(IV) complexes were sensitive to the local coordination environment. We also explored the properties of lanthanide complexes in macrocyclic tetraazaannulene ligand environments and demonstrated that the secondary coordination sphere could be used to control the properties of these complexes. In this way, we demonstrated a redox induced single crystal to single crystal transformation, hydrogen atom transfer upon oxidation of a cerium(III) compound, and slow paramagnetic relaxation in late lanthanide double-decker complexes

The science of cathedral studies : exploring the demographic profile, motivational intentions, and perceived impact among those attending the Holly Bough service in Liverpool Cathedral

The Holly Bough service is a unique pre-Christmas event, combining musical excellence and theological depth, crafted by the founding dean of Liverpool Cathedral in the early twentieth century for the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Located within the developing science of cathedral studies, this paper analyses the demographic profile, motivational intention (drawing on religious orientation theory) and perceived impact on spiritual wellbeing (drawing on Fisher’s four dimensional model) among 564 participants who completed a detailed survey at the service held in 2019. The data demonstrated a mix of ages, a sense of Anglican commitment to this form of event-belonging by those who return year-on-year and invite friends to join them, and a perceived beneficial impact on all four dimensions of spiritual wellbeing