It's funny, when I was "in" i never saw this kind of behaviour. Never even occurred to me. Now I'm faded out it's all too true. Even when they do stop to chat it seems it's with an ulterior motive. A brother I was pretty good friends with stopped me in the high street a few weeks ago and made small talk then got to "the point": that he had recently been made an elder and at the last elders meeting they had discussed me and that they wanted to come around to see how I was. When would I be available? I said I was busy and would let him know. He kind of laboured the issue but when he realised I wasn't going to commit to a date, he pretty much ended the conversation. Likewise a very sweet sister I bumped into the other day was all friendly and smiley but the gist of the very very brief conversation was how much "they" missed me and "please come back". Admittedly I wasn't bosum buddies with her but, really? that's all there is to say?!
I hear you Blackbird - totally bizarre!