Depends on the music. Something that's a bit more march like, needs a bit of what we used to call in the neo-Baroque days, "structured legato." Nonsense of course, since I am sure the Baroque composers fully understood legato. However, I understand the need for a slight bit of detachment for clarity. Depends on the voicing of your particular organ and the building acoustics.

Some pieces are legato and should be played and sung that way. But some monotony from it can really be a problem of accents not being, "accented."

It is hard to establish a beat on the organ. I have, at times, created the illusion of a beat by holding the pedal note of the first chord in the measure a tiny bit longer than succeeding notes. It does simulate to some degree an "accent" on the first beat of the measure.

Never thought of that. But I don't expect to find a "sincere" church or music program any more than I expect to find the sincere pumpkin patch Linus looks for every year to attract the Great Pumpkin. LOL.

But I will say that you have to work with the building and the organ. They are all different in every place I have been. A good thing to do once in a while, is have someone else play the organ while you move around the building and actually listen to what the congregation hears. It can be both revealing and surprising. For example, I found that the organ volume drops significantly about a third of the way from the front, where those side arms are in our cross-shaped building. Didn't know that.

My current job has me playing two very different organs- your advice is great, also because what sound good with one does not work so well with the other. One is an old tracker that's pretty stiff and it's hard to get a smooth sound , I practically have to press my forearms on it. The other is a 50 year old electropneumatic. It's a lot of fun but confusing.

Cannot imagine using staccato, however.

Purely from a singing perspective, staccato markings - like marcato and legato - have their place. As pointed out above, it depends on circumstances. Here are some examples from the Ave Maria (Victoria / Handl)...

Well another thing I've noticed is that with less legato playing i do get " clearer demarcation of tempo" and people seem to sing better - they can follow more easily, though perhaps the sound is a bit cruder. When the sound blends like syrup the ordinary folks get lost. Is there perhaps an ideal hymn playing technique, something between " glue" and " chop"?

Matilda, as others have hinted at, I think a lot of the answer depends on the acoustic properties of your building. My (carpeted) church has fairly minimal reverberation, and the organ is comparatively close to the congregation...so when playing hymns and accompanying the choir I generally aim for a "medium-legato" touch, as it were. But I occasionally fill in at a much larger church with no carpeting, where the organ is in a loft high above people's heads. If I were to use the same touch in that room, everything would sound like mush, so I have to adopt a more staccato style of playing if there's any hope of making the music intelligible.

Thanks you guys! It sounds like there are many ways to look at this. As usual, this is a great way to get some personal sticky points aired and gives access to levels of expertise that are usually out of my range!