This month's Sunday gathering

We hope to see you at 10.30am for breakfast, this coming Sunday (11th) at the Oak Tree Centre, St Anns, Colchester. If you'd like anymore details or directions, please get in touch.

Sunday Gathering 13 April

Our next second-Sunday-of-the-month Gathering at the Oak Tree Centre, Harwich Road, Colchester, is on Sunday 13 April. See map here. Come along at 10.30am for free breakfast and and a read of the newspapers, followed by informal, contemporary worship – and a chance to find out more about God and the meaning of things.

Area Worship Leaders' Retreat 18-19 April

The next East Anglia and Kent Area Worship Leaders' Retreat is on Friday 18 April - Saturday 19 April, in Suffolk. This is for those leading worship in their Vineyard churches / housegroups etc. If you'd like to know more about this, speak to your pastor or contact Graeme.

Church Planting Forum at Southend, 10 May

Interested in finding out more about church planting? Contact the office for more info on this event at Southend Vineyard, on Saturday 10 May.

Thursday 6 March - at the King's Arms

This Thursday, we'll be meeting at the King's Arms, Crouch Street, Colchester, where it's live music night. Everyone welcome – see you there from 7.30pm onwards. For location, see map here.

Sunday Gathering, 10 February

This coming Sunday, 10 February, it's our monthly gathering at St Anne's Community Centre, Harwich Road. See map here. It starts with breakfast and the morning papers at 10.30, so why not drop in for coffee and tasty pastries – and check us out.

Who Jesus came for...

Message goes out

Last Friday (11 January) Colchester Gazette ran a story on our texting service, including a picture of our leader taking up nearly half of page 3! Anyone can use this service who'd like to get up-to-date info on Colchester Vineyard events, news, and prayer requests – and it's free. To sign-up, see the the right-hand column. Thanks to the Gazette for doing this story.

Sunday Gathering

Happy New Year. Our next Sunday gathering is on the 13th January from 10.30am at St Anns Centre, Harwich Rd. See you there for breakfast, acoustic worship and prayer.

Mulled wine, mince pies and carols

We're getting together on Friday 21 December at 8pm for an evening of mulled wine, mince pies and carols. Everyone welcome. For details of location, contact the office.

Sunday 9 December at St Anne's Community Centre

Everyone's welcome to our second Sunday worship gathering at St Anne's Community Centre, Harwich Road, Colchester. We're starting at 10.30 with breakfast, coffee and the morning papers! For location, follow this link. If you'd like any more info, phone or email (details in right column).

First Sunday

We had our first Sunday meeting this morning, with loads of food, coffee, great people and great worship. We'll be meeting at the same venue on the 2nd Sunday of every month. The easiest way to find it is to go up Harwich Rd and, if you are coming from the town centre, the centre is on the left by the first speed camera (after the shops).
Thanks to Dave Gellette from Southend Vineyard who came to lead worship for us. Here are a few pics from this morning.

...more pics from today

Keep up to Date

We have a new text messaging update service, so you can keep up to date with all the goings on. Simply text Colvin to 80480 (costs the same as 1 normal sms text message). After that all updates are free and you can un-subscribe at any time.

Col:Vin @ St Ann's - New public meeting

From the 11th November at 11am we will start meeting monthly at St Ann's Community Centre, Harwich Rd, Colchester. This will be a small informal gathering to worship, do some practical biblical teaching, minister to each other and eat some lunch together. Everyone is welcome to come, so if you have any questions or need directions, please email or phone the church office. If you aren't sure where Harwich Road is, use the interactive map below. There is a sign off the road saying "St Ann's Resource Centre", follow that.


View Larger Map

What is Worship Conference

This past weekend a few of us went along to the "What is Worship" conference in Bury St Edmunds. Dan Wilt did the teaching and packed the day with lots of great stuff. Here are a couple of pics.

November Conferences

There are some more great conferences coming up in November. These are in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but thanks to Easyjet and Ryanair they are reachable and worth getting to.


The first is Naturally Supernatural
This is being held in Edinburgh on November 2nd and 3rd.

The same weekend in Dungannon, Northern Ireland is
The Outward Focussed Church

If you'd like further details then click on the links and contact the host churches.

Housegroup resumes Thursday 6 September

Our Colchester housegroup resumes this week, on Thursday 6 September, 8.00pm, usual place. For details, send us an email, or phone 01206 248888.

What is Worship? conference 29 September

What is Worship? is a conference taking an in-depth look at the multi-faceted richness of Christian worship. It's led by Dan Wilt, director of the Institute of Contemporary & Emerging Worship Studies in partnership with St. Stephen’s University in St. Stephen, New Brunswick. The venue is The Corn Exchange, Bury St Edmunds, on Saturday 29th September, starting at 10am, with doors opening at 9.30am for tea & coffee, and runs until 10pm. A party will be going from Col::Vin. For more info, or to book your place, send us an email. You can read more about the conference at the What is Worship? page at Vineyard Records UK.

Col::Vin phone number change

Colchester Vineyard's phone number has changed; it's now 01206 248888. Don't forget to update your records!

Coming soon

Here's some of what we're planning to do before the summer disappears: (1) Evening trip down the Colne on the spritsail barge Fertile on Friday 24 August, leaving the Hythe at 7.30pm; (2) Day sail at Fellowship Afloat, Tollesbury, 9.00am - 5.30pm Wednesday 29 August; (3) Visit to Duxford Aircraft Museum, Saturday 1 September (mainly for the boys); (4) Breakfast and shopping in Colchester, Saturday 1 September (strictly for the girls). For more details of, or to book in to any of these, email the office.

This was a picnic

It was perfect afternoon on Sunday (5/8) for sitting under a shady tree in Castle Park and sharing some grub. More events are planned in the coming weeks, including barging; sailing; a visit to Duxford (for the guys) and a breakfast-followed-by-shopping event (for the girls). Details to be posted soon.

Picnic in Castle Park, Sunday 5 August

Castle Park is the venue for our picnic this coming Sunday, 5 August. Bring your friends. We'll meet at the Bandstand at 1pm; and take along some food to share.
(Pic is from a screen grab of this Microsoft Live Search page.)

Gardening gallery

Here are a few pics of our gardening session on Saturday.

Gardening session Saturday 28 July

There's a major garden tidy-up happening on Sat 28th July, weather permitting, at Graeme and Debbie's. So come along and help subdue the jungle; the action will begin at about 11am. Drinks and lunch will be provided for the workers! Please bring your garden tools with you.

Visit to Gateway Vineyard Norwich, 22 July

We've been invited to visit Gateway Vineyard, Norwich, this coming Sunday 22 July. Graeme will guesting with their worship band, and the rest of us have been asked to help with the ministry. We're all looking forward to this, especially as it involves some breakfast before things start! If you'd like to come or would like more info, let us know. We should be able to organise lifts for everyone.

Pudding Party 20 June (no housegroup on Tuesday)

Just a reminder that there'll be no housegroup on Tuesday 19 June – it's Pudding Party the next day instead. For details of venue and time, please email the office.

Stour Valley ramble

Macey's a Scottish dog, so when she decided to take a look at the River Stour just above Manningtree, she wasn't to know that all that grey stuff was sticky and smelly, and would result in no-one wanting to play with her from then on. Here she is with a speechless Debbie after an exciting ramble with a few of us around the Stour Valley between Manningtree and Dedham today. See a few more pix here.

Moving in

Graeme, Debbie and Joseph moved in to their house in Colchester today! Here are Graeme, and co-driver Dave Gellet, unloading the van earlier this morning, before Graeme returns to Scotland today, to get the last few bits - and the dog.

Ladies at Hall Farm, Stratford St Mary, 21 April

Ladies: are you interested in meeting up on Saturday 21 April for a chat, a cup of coffee and a delicious slice of cake, in lovely surroundings? If so, come along to Hall Farm Coffee Shop in Stratford St Mary (take the A12 towards Ipswich, count the signs to Dedham and when you see the third one, take that slip road off the A12 and Hall Farm is just there). For more info, email the office.

Some bits of news

We had a great time at Prezzo's (Thursday 5 April): lots of good chat and food, and a chance to get to know some new people. On Easter Sunday, Andy and Sam Vincett were formally handed the leadership of Southend Vineyard; meanwhile Graeme and Debbie Campbell (son-to-be-leaders of Col::Vin) have started their move from Scotland: they've found a house and Graeme has delivered the first van-load of their stuff. Next Sunday (22 April), Steve and Juliet Barber get their send-off from Southend Vineyard, as they begin setting the foundations for Leicester City Vineyard.

Graeme and Debbie

Graeme and Debbie Campbell (soon to be the new Col::Vin leaders) were in Colchester for the weekend looking for accommodation and doing a job interview. It was geat to see them and hear them talking about their vision for Col::Vin. We're continuing to pray for them as they up sticks from Scotland and move their lives down here.

Living the Life: Vineyard Area Women's Day, 5 May 2007

All women in East Anglia and Kent Vineyards are invited to an area women's day entitled "Living the Life". It'll be happening at the Athenaeum, Bury St Edmunds, on 5 May 2007, from 10.00 - 16.00. Maggie Parsons, senior pastor at West Suffolk Vineyard, says "It will help us to make new friendships and to draw closer Jesus together, as well as to practically share ideas, resources, and to give and receive prayer ministry". Col::Vin will be organising a party, so let us know if you'd like to come along. Whizzing around upside-down won't be compulsory, we understand.

Ladies at Loofers, Saturday 3 March

Fiona's organising a girls' coffee get-together at Loofers this coming Saturday 3 March, at 3pm. Everyone's welcome and please feel free to invite friends. Loofers is just by the corner on Culver Street West and opposite Debenhams (see Wayfaring map, waypoint 3).

Hold On

Came across this video on Graeme Campbell's blog recently. It features some of the guys from Trent Vineyard. Hope you like it.