I’ve been delving into the heortology of the Christian East in the past few weeks, looking today in general at the Triduuum and specifically the Holy Saturday Orthos in the Triodion. I’ve come to a few conclusions about Constantinople:

1) Nearly every liturgical innovation during Late Antiquity, especially in heortology, comes from the East (with the exception of the Nativity).
2) Almost nothing we call characteristically Byzantine was in old Constantinople.
3) Constantinople was waaay behind the curve when it comes to the rest of the East. Jerusalem had developed stational services by the time of Egeria, but Constantinope remained immune to change until the monastic period following the struggle over Iconoclasm (when hagiopolite elements “enriched” [depending on perspective] their worship about 400 years later).

While I believe a lot of people go East for good reasons, I simply cannot understand why people return to the East because of the historical stability of their worship and calendar. Although some Orthodox claim their liturgy is unchanging, I have to wonder what planet they are living on.