 He was consecrated as a metropolitan of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate by Pope Shenouda III.In 1994 he became a monk of the Monastery of the Holy Virgin Mary (El-Surian), Wadi El Natrun, Egypt, hence his name "Abba Seraphim El-Suriani".On 4 October 2015 the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate, in response to a request from the British Orthodox Church, agreed to the British church returning to its pre-1994 status as an autonomous jurisdiction, with Seraphim as primate.