It's Not Your House. Show some respect!

     Okay, look, I'm not what one would call a pious, or traditionally religious person.  In fact, the only time I ever regularly attend church is when I'm playing a string of services on the organ, no matter the denomination; as long as I'm able to make music I've pretty much found my spiritual ground of being (to paraphrase Paul Tillich).  So this little diatribe is not about me: it's about the supposed faithful who, knowingly or unknowingly, show little or no respect for their God in church.  I'm referring to the behaviour of these pecksniffs just prior to the "official" service/mass; i. e., before and, especially, during the prelude.  

   It's pretty evident people don't care nowadays.  They simply don't:  either out of ignorance or protrusive self-indulgence.  The time before the service has become a social hour in which the din of conversation sometimes borders on the raucous (depending upon the number of attendees).  So, I wonder, why do I go to the trouble of learning a beautiful, quiet, meditative prelude that, in most cases, I can barely hear myself, much less set a contemplative mood or setting for worship?   It's come to the point where I have found myself in the same position as a more than a few organists in so far as I really don't like practising the organ anymore.  Let's be certain here. This is not a recital. It's not about drawing attention to the organist performing some stunning, difficult piece of music.  It's really not even the music per se.  It's what the music is suppose to do in establishing a peaceful, meditative, spiritual and —most importantly — respectful milieu in what I've always considered to a holy space.  But why bother when the end result is the congregation's apparent floccinaucinihilipilification of the music before service.

   There was a time when churches were deliberately built to have subdued lighting (even the Gothic cathedrals with their long and many windows [albeit brighter than the Romanesque buildings] utilised natural light and still were considerably less obtrusive than most contemporary churches).  Additionally — more so in Roman Catholic and other highly liturgical churches — you were taught or simply knew that you were entering a place of worship.  It was where you left the secular world behind and were entering a sacred space, and therefore behaved accordingly.  Simply put:  IT'S NOT YOUR HOUSE!  And if you don't get that; if you are not predisposed to comport yourself then don't come inside.  It's as if I came over to your house, and instead of engaging with you — in your house — I and a whole bunch of other people came by, and we all chose to chitchat amongst ourselves instead of you.  It's bloody rude.  And that is exactly how pre-service congregations, especially non liturgical (Protestant) behave today.  

    Entering a church sanctuary should induce a sense of awe, of humility.  One should be humbled, penitent.  After all you are entering the house of the Lord.  So, forget about the organ, forget about the gentle, soothing, contemplative music; and, more importantly forget about the other people.  You're in God's house.  Show some respect.