WordPress helpfully provides a year-end review for each of its blogs. In 2014 Eclectic Orthodoxy saw a 36% increase in views from 2013. That’s very encouraging. But three out of the top five of my most popular articles were written in 2013. Not sure how I should interpret that statistic, beyond being grateful that folks find those particular articles worth reading and recommending. I guess I was particularly inspired in 2013. Other popular 2014 articles were:
Sergius Bulgakov: Hell as Universal Purgatory
Can We Read our Way into the Trinity?
I should also mention that my pic of the erudite Fr Andrew Louth, originally published in 2013, was very popular in 2014, far exceeding the views received by the rest of our theologians’ gallery. He is now Eclectic Orthodoxy’s “most interesting theologian in the world.” Congratulations, Fr Andrew!
I’d like to thank all my readers for their support during 2014. On to 2015! Hmm, what to read and write about next? Suggestions are welcome, though I’ll probably ignore them. 🙂
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2014 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
The Louvre Museum has 8.5 million visitors per year. This blog was viewed about 230,000 times in 2014. If it were an exhibit at the Louvre Museum, it would take about 10 days for that many people to see it.
Eclectic Orthodoxy 
I wish to thank you, Fr.Kimel, for all of the inspiring articles you have written and shared with us. I admit that I am no theologian or scholar, but I value what I can understand in your writings, and I am so glad that I discovered your blog via a friend at Facebook. As far as suggestions for future essays, I have none, although I do enjoy the “literary” ones about George MacDonald, C. S. Lewis, Charles Williams, etc. I also would benefit from something addressing prayer. Is there an Orthodox book of prayer similar to the Anglican Book of Common Prayer? I try to pray daily, but I always resort to the Lord’s Prayer and “Thy will be done”, which I suppose covers everything.
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Victoria, I do not often touch on matters of personal prayer, perhaps because I have never been able to maintain a consistent spiritual discipline for more than a month or two. Hence I do not feel myself competent to speak on such matters.
I commend to you John McGuckin’s Prayer Book of the Early Christians. You may find here prayers and offices that may prove helpful.
At all times, remember Dom John Chapman’s maxim: “Pray as you can; don’t try to pray as you can’t.”
In addition to the Lord’s Prayer, you may wish to incorporate the Jesus Prayer into your life. I do not know if I could have survived the first year after my son’s death without it. See Elder Sophrony on the Jesus Prayer. You may also find helpful Lev Gillet, The Jesus Prayer.
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Thank you. Prayer Book of the Early Christians looks interesting, and the Jesus Prayer is something I’ve tried to use over the decades, but I have bookmarked the link you provided for later reading. Appreciate your response, and I wish you a peaceful and blessed 2015.
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Congrats on the stats!
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