Greening tells Church: It’s time to accept same-sex marriages

THE Church of England should ‘keep up’ with modern society and drop its opposition to gay marriage, Justine Greening said. While same-sex couples have been able to have civil weddings since 2013, the law still bars them from doing so in Anglican churches.

The Education Secretary said: ‘I think it is important that the Church keeps up and is part of a modern country.

‘I wouldn’t prescribe to them how they should deal with that but I do think we are living in a country where people broadly recognise that attitudes are in a different place now to where they were many, many years ago.

‘We have allowed same-sex marriage, that is a massive step forward for the better and for me, I think people do want to see our major faiths keep with modern attitudes in our country.’

Miss Greening’s comments come a week after Theresa May urged the CofE to ‘reflect’ on its opposition to allowing vicars to bless gay marriages and consider how attitudes have changed.