Vision & Values
Our vision is to grow an international community in North London that knows Jesus and makes Jesus known.
In order to achieve this, we believe that God has called Highgate International Church to be a people who are:
Bible-taught
We recognise the authority of the Bible as the Word of God and seek to read it, meditate on it, talk about it and for our lives to be transformed according to its message. We seek to expound and teach the whole Bible both publicly and in our homes. We seek to develop a hunger for the Word of God and to become a people who know their God through what he has revealed to us in the Bible.
Spirit-led
We recognise that apart from the Holy Spirit, there is no Christian life. Individually and corporately, we seek to allow God’s Spirit to guide us into truth and to bring us assurance of salvation. We are open to his leading and prioritize open times of sharing and encouragement whenever we meet together. We recognise that it is the Holy Spirit who gives every spiritual gift to build his church.
Worship-centred
We affirm that ‘the chief end of man is to worship God and enjoy him forever’. We realise that worship is a matter of giving our lives as living sacrifices and as such encompasses all our activity. Yet we know that time given in praise and intimacy with God is time when we are transformed into his likeness. We aim to give priority privately and corporately to being before God and attributing to him his worth.
A family
We seek to be an international community that is transformed by God’s love for us; we seek to love one another, serve one another and to live transparent lives. Though we are of different nationalities and different ages, we are committed to unity, loyalty and trust. We recognise that we are human and don’t always get things right, but are ready to encourage, look after and pray for one another as we grow to maturity together.
For a current description of the details of how we are seeking to achieve this vision, see our ‘current developments.’
We are members of the Evangelical Alliance and subscribe fully and wholeheartedly to the EA basis of faith.
Our History
Highgate International Church has been serving the local community for over 130 years.
Highgate International Church has been serving the local community for over 130 years.
The church was planted early in the 1880s as Cholmeley Mission, the work of Open Brethren in the area who were associated with Clapton Hall, a strong Brethren church in Hackney. They first met above a baker’s shop at no. 104, lower down Archway Road. They soon needed a larger building and that was provided in 1890–91 by one of the elders at the time, Arthur Boake, an industrial chemist who lived in a house with grounds on Southwood Lane, Highgate. The building was known as Cholmeley (pronounced ‘chum-ley’) Hall until renamed Cholmeley Evangelical Church in 1962. (The name, Cholmeley, had local connections dating back to the 1500s when Sir Roger de Cholmeley founded Highgate School.)
The church continued to grow rapidly up to 1914, when it had some 300 members, 30 or 35 of whom were in overseas missionary service. There was much life and vigour between the World Wars, including the beginning of work in Muswell Hill in 1921 which led to the formation of a separate church in 1925, which eventually settled, after the Second War, in Wilton Road, Muswell Hill.
The church in Archway Road continued to flourish up to the 1990s, particularly through children’s and youth work, and annual summer camps (which began as early as 1923 at West Mersea). The willingness to adapt to changes in culture was shown in the 1960s when the church introduced Sunday evening ‘Beat Services’ designed to present the gospel to a new generation—the church was never a particularly traditional Brethren assembly, and two church members from the 1960s became life peers (one being a Cabinet Minister for several years).
By the 1980s the building at 272 Archway Road was in need of substantial repair and the decision was taken to rebuild on site. Park Road Hall, Crouch End was acquired as a temporary home during rebuilding—and became the location of a church plant in the 1990s.
In 2013, the name of the church was changed to Highgate International Church, to reflect the multicultural character of the congregation and the Highgate area. Still now, as in the 1880s, the heart of the church remains the same: unwaveringly committed to preaching and living out the gospel message where God has placed us.
For a more detailed account of the history of the church from 1884 to 2000, read here.
