In the 19th century the Syrian Orthodox Church provided bishops for discontented Anglo-Catholics in Britain, Portuguese Catholics in Ceylon and Old Catholics in America. In 1933 it responded to a crisis among the Byzantine Orthodox in Hungary by consecrating a bishop for these congregations too. Although now a Metropolitan of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Abba Seraphim believes that there are certain parallels which may be construed to aid a more generous evaluation of these bishops and his detailed documentation, the fruit of 40 years research, provides the basis for such a re-assessment.