Old/young divide

There were three christenings today (the parish diary just said 'mass baptism' yet Revd Suzanne remembered all the names) but though the church was packed, leaving almost no room for the regulars, it was clear a majority of the guests were there under sufferance.  This is to be expected but what was interesting was the division between the older and the younger 'irregulars'.
The more senior of the invited sat (and suffered?) in silence - one greybeard when standing resolutely held his hands behind his back, the service sheet left untended on the pew ledge (making others share theirs) and one could assume a fiction about him that here was a man of deep spirituality, rejecting the orthodox liturgy of the Church of England to commune directly with God.  But if he didn't care for the institution hosting the event, he had respect for the family engaging in the ceremony of baptism.
Younger members showed none of this.  The mother of one of the baptised went up to the communion rail and not just did none of her family go up with her, but a male friend had nipped in to chat to them and she came back to find her pew space occupied, as if she had been to a toilet break on a train and someone had nabbed her seat; worse, he wouldn't leave, eventually bunching up with the others in the pew row so at last the mum could sit down in a place reserved for her.  Others were similarly inconsiderate.  One can understand people given over to low-level chatter while people process up for communion but to be so addicted to it to continue doing so during hymns is just plain rude.  These weren't callow or iconoclastic youths but people in their late twenties and early thirties.
The godparents hardly gave themselves over to higher standards, mumbling their commitments to the extent that Revd Suzanne needed to get them to repeat it, like a scolding teacher, emphasising the importance of what they were saying as if they didn't understand the role they had accepted.  While the children were urged to fight valiantly against sin, the world and the devil, it seemed many of the godparents would not be able to uphold their godchildren against the world as they were very much of it.  Not so much godparents as God-less parents.  For them, a baptism is an opportunity for a knees-up with a bit more reason behind it than an impromptu Sunday afternoon barbecue.  However, this was the case for the older people too and the latter were prepared to observe the form, if not the content, of the service.  One does not need to go to church to learn good manners.