but riddle me this

So last night was the rehearsal before this concert I'm doing at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception of the*.  The four of us ringers had been asked to get there at 9pm, because we didn't need to endure the whole thing from 5:30 or whatever; I got there at 8:45 because I didn't know where we were supposed to enter the building, so a little extra time, right?

Yeah - I did a complete circuit of the outside and came only to locked doors.  When I got back where I'd started, and I could see through the crack between the doors that this was where I was supposed to be (and hear the director's voice, even!), I rattled the door repeatedly until someone came to let me in.  Weren't the front (read: west) doors open?, they said.  Not when I was just down there trying to open them, said I.

But all this makes me wonder, because it happens at the National Cathedral, too -- what is up with locking up your churches?  I'm really asking.  I can see locking away the valuables, and if that includes most of the place, fine, but a person ought to be able to get into a vestibule or something, right?  I said to my section leader a couple of weeks ago, shouldn't the people be able to get in and pray any time they need to?  I mean, I don't pray, but isn't that a thing about prayer, that sometimes it can't wait?  But I guess you don't always need to be in church to do it -- not for the prayer, at least, but maybe for you.  I see your point, she said, but the doors are locked because the homeless, they wouldn't be coming in to pray.  No, I said, they'd probably be coming in out of the cold, which, aren't you supposed to welcome them?

I'm really asking.  These are the houses of God, and the doors are barred?  Some sanctuary.


* jgesteve, I added that just for you.  :-)