The Archbishop of Canterbury has said the Church of England must learn to overcome divisions on controversial issues like gay marriage and women bishops.

The Most Reverend Justin Welby claimed the Church faces a challenge to show society its members can hold different views.

He said it has to manage any disagreements “gracefully”.

Today Mr Welby, a former oil industry executive, held his first Easter service at Canterbury Cathedral since being enthroned earlier this month.

His comments come a day after the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, launched a scathing attack on David Cameron.

In an article for the Daily Mail, he accused the Government of “aiding and abetting” discrimination against Christians, adding many religious followers doubt the Prime Minister’s “sincerity.”

The current Archbishop spoke in an Easter Sunday broadcast for Premier Christian Radio.

He said: “We need to understand reconciliation within the Church as the transformation of destructive conflict, not unanimity.

“It doesn’t mean we all agree, it is that we find ways of disagreeing, perhaps very passionately but loving each other deeply at the same time, gracefully and deeply committed to each other.

“That is the challenge for the Church and that is the challenge if the Church is actually going to speak to our society which is increasingly divided in many different ways, here and overseas, over huge issues.”

The father-of-five, who left the oil industry in 1989 to be ordained, told the programme that working in the oil industry was “not even a quarter” as pressured as being a parish priest.

He also spoke of how he and his wife Caroline coped after their first born child, Johanna, died in a road accident in France in 1983.

He said: “God is aware of our suffering, of the suffering of this very broken world and our suffering was as nothing compared to many people and he is at work even in the darkest places.

“I think the cross is the great point at which the suffering and sorrow, torture, trial and sin and yuck of the world ends up on God’s shoulders out of love for us.”