The University offers a warm welcome to Reverend Alastair Kirk, who will join us at Easter as the new Anglican Chaplain, taking up the post previously occupied by Reverend Mark Bratton.

Alastair grew up locally and studied at Warwick school. While attending St. Paul’s church in Leamington he decided to spend a gap year working as part of a Christian community in northern Israel, beginning a love of travel and a special interest in the Middle East.

He studied Geography at the University of Durham and spent a year as an Erasmus student in Germany. His interest in the Middle East led him to study soil degradation in the deserts of Jordan for his Doctorate. After this he went to work in northern Iraq, building institutional capacity in Kurdish government ministries.

Alastair then moved to Save the Children (SCF), organising and conducting research into the effects of sanctions on families and children. After almost three years in Iraq, he took up managing the SCF programme in northern Sri Lanka.

After a brief visit to Baghdad after the 2003 war, Alastair settled down to theological studies in Cambridge, married his wife Sara, and started a family. He became a trainee-vicar in Bradford and will join the University as Anglican Chaplain, hoping to pursue his spiritual/pastoral, interfaith and academic interests.