GOC bishop: Council condemning heresy of Catholics – Eighth and Ecumenical
According to the Greek hierarch, the Council, which was held in the 9th century in Constantinople, helped to keep the Orthodox faith in dogmatic purity.
On February 6, 2022, Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus of the Hellenic Orthodox Church, announced that the Council of Constantinople, held under the holy Patriarch Photius in 879-880, is the Eighth and Ecumenical, according to the Greek edition Romfea.
In a sermon after the Liturgy, Metropolitan Seraphim noted that the Church honors Patriarch Photius “because he preserved Orthodoxy through the convening of the Holy Eighth Ecumenical Council in 879-880 in order to curb the Filioque heresy, i.e. the perversion of the Trinitarian Creed and the tragic apostasy from the faith of the Saints and Divine Fathers and Holy and Divine Apostles.
“The Holy Eighth Ecumenical Council, the one to which we owe our Orthodoxy, with strength, faith and power condemned the Filioque heresy, i.e. the addition to the ‘Creed’, and anathematized anyone who in the future wants to add something to the truth,” stressed the Metropolitan of Piraeus.
He is sure that "The Holy Eighth Ecumenical Council <...> represents for all of us a conscious and higher energy and strength for the preservation of our indestructible Faith." For this reason, he said further, “we revere him here, locally, in the Piraeus Eparchy, praising the Most Holy God and his holy and God-bearing fathers, who gave us the self-consciousness of Orthodox truth.”
Earlier, the UOJ wrote that Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus opposed the visit of Pope Francis to Greece.
