In the last three Protestant Episcopal Church services that I have attended (two of them being amongst the largest in the country) neither one of them used the Psalter during the eucharistic services. That did not dawn on me until I had finished going to the third church.
It's hard for me to go and worship and just be a participant. I keep looking at my watch trying to sense the pacing. Are they going to have enough time to get all of the liturgy in without feeling rushed? And shockingly, with more liturgy and more people than I have got, they get it all in, with the eucharist every Sunday.
The tradition that I come from uses far more of a call-response type of rhythm than what they use, though clearly that is there in their services. My tradition virtually begs for an altar call each service, and that is foreign to theirs, so some time is used up there.
Yet interestingly, the very service where I have received the most people into membership, I never do an altar call in it. And the service where I rarely receive members, I virtually always do an altar call there. Go figure. I know I still am.
