Hello Hal! Interesting observations. Some resonate with my own experience and some are a bit foreign to me.
I’ve noticed the pre-Sacrament meeting irreverence before and I think it depends mostly on the tastes of the particular bishopric. I’ve been in wards where the bishopric just doesn’t care, so naturally one would walk in a few minutes early to very loud talking, laughing, children munching on cheerios (if not running around the aisles) and I’ve been in other wards where the bishopric kept silence to such a maximized level that one could hear a pin drop in the Cultural Hall one room over. I once even had a former Marine Bishop who would approach the pulpit and over the speaker call individuals out by name asking them to take their conversations out to the foyer “where they belong”.
Now I wouldn’t say there is no focal point in an LDS chapel, just that the focal point is different than what one finds in a Catholic church. I always thought it was a bit odd that it was called “Sacrament Meeting” where the Sacrament took up only 10 minutes of the service, the altar was always to the side of the church (with the pulpit prominently in the center) and the meeting always culminated in speakers’ “talks”. Compare that to a Catholic Mass where the altar is in the center, the pulpit to the side, the readings and the homily prepare us for the climax of the service itself: the Eucharist.
Oh definitely. My own Bishop’s cathedral stands as evidence (in my personal opinion).
