The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

1/7/2017

Odds and ends

Living with Gods

BBC Radio 4 and the British Museum are collaborating on a 30-part series, Living with Gods, on the world history of religion told through historical artefacts. The British Museum is to open an exhibition in November to run alongside the series, which will be broadcast on Mondays at 9:45am from 23rd October.

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New Lambeth library

Lambeth Palace is to build a nine-story tower in order to house the biggest collection of religious works outside the Vatican. The new library will stand at the far perimeter of the grounds.

The first library at Lambeth Palace was founded in 1610. The construction of the new one will begin next year, and hope to finish in 2020. It will be the first new construction on the site for 180 years.

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Why it is good to talk to yourself

When we see people talking out loud to themselves, we can tend to avoid them as slightly odd. But, in reality, they may be very smart indeed. According to a recent study at Bangor University, those of us who speak to ourselves while focusing on a task do better than those of us who stay silent.

It seems that when we read instructions out loud, our brains absorb information more quickly. As one psychologist at Bangor explained: ‘Our ability to generate explicit self-instructions is actually one of the best tools we have for cognitive control.’  Of course some of us knew that all along!

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Looking out and looking in

I can take my telescope and look millions of miles into space; but I can go away to my room and in prayer get nearer to God and heaven than I can when assisted by all the telescopes of earth. Isaac Newton

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Good days / bad days

I think I’ll just put an “Out of Order” sticker on my forehead and call it a day.

Today is the oldest you’ve ever been, yet the youngest you’ll ever be, so enjoy this day while it lasts.

I’m not bossy. I just know what you should be doing.

Someday we’ll look back on this, laugh nervously, and change the subject.