By Matt Smith

MEET the new pastor-teacher at Alcester Baptist Church.

Alastair Aird, 55, is the 24th reverend at the church and joins after moving from Nottingham.

The Rev Aird was born in Paisley, Scotland, and worked for Barclays Bank before taking his first pastor-teacher post at Gourock in Scotland.

After spending seven years there, he moved to the Daybrook Baptist Church in Nottingham, where he has spent the past 14 years.

He has been married to Ruth for 31 years and has taken over from the Rev Tim Heard, who left the post two years ago.

The Rev Aird said: "We've been in contact since February and since then we have been getting to know more about the town.

''Everybody's been very friendly and we're looking forward to living here."

Rev Aird was invited to join by the church's congregation.

"One of my first jobs here is to get to know members and make contact with the local community,'' he said.

"I've already met some of the members of the other churches, including The Rev David Capron.''

The Rev Aird is looking forward to his career in Alcester and has already found out much about the church.

He said: "After meeting the congregation, the most important things to do is to teach them to care for each other and also the teachings of the Bible - to me that's very important.

"I've already found out about the life of the church and having done that, we'll be moving on to learning other things."

And he is planning to continue his interests in reading and walking.