Churches usually have time after the weekly service to talk. We usually call it Coffee Hour. The invitation to join in is usually quite generous.
As a young adult, I appreciated the welcome. I just never took advantage of it. The churches and cathedrals I’d wander into or attend regularly would always have a coffee hour. It’s just not what I wanted. At least not what I always wanted.
Invitations from the priest were exactly that. Invitations. I nearly always declined them. I’m just there for the service, I’d think.
When people welcomed me and insisted I go to coffee hour, I was slightly more inclined. But if someone engaged with me and walked me to coffee hour, then I’d stay.
I never felt unwelcomed. And yet sometimes I really felt welcomed.
We all have different visions of what is welcoming; full of expectations. I suspect, however, that welcome is less the question than engagement and connection.