Abba Seraphim

Copinger's Annals: The Lord's Work in the Nineteenth & Twentieth Centuries Abba Seraphim

Harold Bernard Copinger (1880-1951) was a barrister as well as the son of Professor W. A. Copinger, Dean of the Faculty of Law at Victoria University in Manchester, who was also Angel-Evangelist for the Northern District of England in the Catholic Apostolic Church, commonly called 'The Irvingites'. In 1929 Harold Copinger took over as bookseller and librarian to the Catholic Apostolic Church and was based at their Central Church in Gordon Square, London. Among the tasks which he set himself was a compilation of a draft history of the Catholic Apostolic Church in the form of Annals as well as making an extensive Bibliography of their extensive publications. With ready access to all the printed documentation he was able to compile the above texts extensively, although both versions only survived as drafts and were never published during his lifetime. Abba Seraphim, being himself descended from clergy of the Catholic Apostolic Church with a substantial collection of books, pamphlets, photographs and other documentation relating to the Catholic Apostolic Church which he has readily made available to other researchers and scholars. Having transcribed Copinger's Annals from the original manuscript in 1969, Abba Seraphim has followed the example of Copinger by augmenting and editing his draft manuscript and is now making it available to contemporary church historians.