In another forum here I once read a post by a guy who actually complained about Orthodox preachers having their back to the congregation so much of the time. I think he thought it was rude or something, lol. But clergy and congregation all face the same way because we are all worshiping as one.
I've felt that, too.
Maybe not the main thing, but another thing about the dispassionate chanting is it removes the personality of the clergy from playing a role in the worship service. I assume it was in America that Christian preachers first started shouting. And many modern Protestant churches are largely about the popularity of the preacher. People pick a church or avoid a church because they like or dislike the preacher. Some of these preachers get famous, and worse, some get rich. And what flowed from this IMO is the making of entertainment out of what should be worship. I was at a large non-denom church once where the pastor swung on a rope over the congregation and onto the stage. I saw Ted Nugent do that in the '70's. Obviously that shouldn't happen in a church, but it does. Perhaps the orthodox Church in her wisdom, has always had intoning and dispassion in part to serve as a bulwark against personality and entertainment gradually creeping in.
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