This summer

I'm working through Casimir Kucharek's The Byzantine-Slav Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom. His chapters on the early centuries are quite interesting, and particularly the chapter on Pre-Nicene Uniformity-Diversity. This starts out with the statement: "Despite the great variations of detail, expected of the more-or-less extemporary character of all pre-Nicene prayer, the celebration of the Eucharist in the second century can still be considered uniform. This uniformity consisted not only in the general ideas (identity of meaning) contained in those extemporary prayers, but also in the order or arrangement of their component parts." (p. 54) He points out that Pope Anicetus inviting Polycarp of Smyrna to celebrate the Eucharist in Rome as an example of a shared sense of uniform order in the Eucharist, but still freedom to formulate the actual prayers according to varying local custom. Anyway, some very good reading.