Metropolitan Anthony (1914-2003), who served for over fifty years as head of the Russian Orthodox Church in Great Britain, was one of the most respected and prominent Orthodox personalities on the world stage. For him, Orthodoxy was simply the universal, undistorted message of the Gospel for all?a fact he brought alive in opening his own diocese to people of every nationality and background. Several of his books, such as Living Prayer and Beginning to Pray, are modern spiritual classics.
Gillian Crow is an Orthodox writer living in London. She was Diocesan Secretary of Metropolitan Anthonys own diocese for the last decade of his life. Her biography of Met. Anthony, This Holy Man, was published in 2005.