[Convert from ECUSA]

I think is is a post-1960s American "cultural thing"; just about every church/denomination I've attended has shown this same problem, the sanctuary is a place for yak-fests, and people get their drawers in a knot if you request that they be quiet or go outside the sanctuary to flap gums. They get offended like their "sacred rights" are threatened! Feh!

Quite honestly, the quietest and most respectful church I've seen was the old Baptist church I grew up in. I was born in 1955, so I can remember what it was like before everything went down the drain after the late 60s/early 70s. In those days, people kept their bazoos zipped in church. Period. I had friends in other Protestant denominations, and Catholic ones as well, and eveyone of them said it was the same in their churches. While my current Catholic parish is 98% good on this score, my former ECUSA parish was actually even a bit better. But when I've travelled.......with the exception of the splendid Byzantine Rite parish in Williamsburg, VA and the Latin Rite one in Cape May, NJ, before and after Mass it is like being in a hen house! When I think back at those old-line Baptists at the church I grew up with and compare with the parishes I've seen when I've traveled, as well as various Protestant churches I've attended in the 80s and 90s.......those oldline Baptists showed far more respect and reverence in the sanctuary (without the Blessed Sacrament) than just about every Catholic parish I've endured.

Yeah, I'm ranting, but that is a major pet peeve of mine. Since the late 60s, Americans have turned into the most undisciplined and rude people, at least in church.

[Knitting A Conundrum]

I have a couple of friends who are extremely devout, but sometimes, they will need to ask each other something after mass, and during the start of adoration, and I have gotten up and went outside because I just couldn't pray with their voices filling up the church. It's a small building, and voices carry. And one of them I know gets horrified by all the noise herself...

Funny how these things work...