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What Were the Earliest Christian Communities like

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There are a number of sources one could use to speculate how the early Christians conducted their worship services, but the two earliest and most reliable are the Didache (c. 90 C.E), and St. Justin Martyr's First Apology. The Didache is greek for “teaching” and is also known as the “Teaching of the Twelve Apostles.” In chapters 8-10 we get a glimpse of how Christians prayed and perhaps what were included in their worship services. Chapter 8 specifies that Christians should pray using the instructions Jesus gave during the sermon on the mount: the “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9-13).
 
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Chapters 9 and 10 deal specifically with the Eucharist, and include instructions for a prayer of consecration for both the bread and wine. It then instructs to not let anyone who has not been baptized take part in the ritual, saying, “But let no one eat or drink of your Thanksgiving (Eucharist), but they who have been baptized into the name of the Lord.” <ref><i>Didache,</i>translated by M.B. Riddle. From Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 7. Edited by Alexander Roberts, James Donaldson, and A. Cleveland Coxe. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm></ref>. It also indicates that the consecrated bread and wine should be brought to the members of the community who are absent.

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