Highbury Home            -  14  -              Reports 2008
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which seems a long while off, but will soon come round, to experience the lovely grounds and local area in the early summer will I’m sure be an added bonus to what is always a fantastic weekend.
Lorraine Gasside
Disability Issues
In our role as Deacons responsible for disability issues, we continue to endeavour to ensure that the buildings and our activities are, as far as reasonably practicable, accessible to all.
It has been good to finally see completion of the work to provide level access to both side doorways of our premises, on the east and west sides of the central corridor, with more gentle slopes and no steps, giving easier access for the elderly and disabled, as well as for parents with pushchairs.
Also, handrails have been installed in the church to assist the elderly and less able who have difficulty mounting and dismounting the dais, giving easier access the reading desk and pulpit sides of the platform, and to the pulpit itself, and providing a greater level of safety for all who need to use the steps in the Sanctuary.
Trainings have been on-going at the Pastoral Care meetings for Deacons and Church Visitors, with a particularly interesting and informative session on Visual Impairment.
Olga Slack and Diana Adams
Mission
Mission statements are nothing new! Jesus had one nearly 2000 years ago. He used words from Isaiah to sum up his mission: God’s Spirit is on me: he’s chosen me to preach the Message of good news to the poor, sent me to announce pardon to prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set the burdened and battered free, to announce, This is God’s year to act!
Jesus knew he couldn’t go it alone ... First he sent out 12, then 72 and then he broadened the challenge to all his followers - to preach the Message, to bring healing and deliverance, to bring God’s peace into people’s homes, God’s rule into whole communities. It’s that kind of mission statement that caught the imagination of those who started the Church here at Highbury, and those who have built it up down through the years. It is what prompts us to do the work we do today in our own locality and further afield.
To build up our commitment to mission we value the partnerships we share with other churches in the Congregational Federation in the world-wide mission partnership, the Council for World Mission and through our work with other churches locally.
Mission Partnerships
We continued to support a number of mission partnerships during the year.
It was wonderful to hear that Jonathan Rowe had been awarded his PhD from St Andrew’s University and great to  hear that he had been appointed