Rayleigh Vineyard is moving its Sunday venue to Sweyne School as from Sunday February 7^th.

Start time is 10.30am for coffee and cakes with worship starting at 10.45am.

Please see the map link here for directions to the new place. We will be meeting in the Humanities Block (signs on site will direct you to this area).

For access to the School turn off the London Road (SS6 9HN) onto Pearsons Avenue. Turn right at the end onto Cheapside West and Sweyne School is at the end of the road.
Map Here

Rayleigh Vineyard has some exciting events planned for the New Year:

Wii & Pancake Evening – join us for a food and fun evening where you can eat all the pancakes you want and then run off the calories with a Wii game! Mon Feb 8

Bowling for Blokes – the guys are getting together @ CJs Bowling Hockley next month – Mon Feb 15

The Lovely Bones – our Book Club is doing a film night visit to Empire Cinema Bas Vegas – Fri Feb 19

Bible Training Days – we have some teaching days coming up in Mar, Jun, Sep & Nov based on specific books in the Bible – Mark, James, John & Romans

Ele Mumford (leader of the Vineyard movement with her husband John) is coming to speak in Rayleigh – Sat Apr 17

Costa’s – we meet at Costa Coffee in Rayleigh High St every first Sunday of the month at 5pm – live music ~ great coffee ~ good chat – Sun Feb 7, Sun Mar 7

Kids Fun Play – we are booking a local soft play centre for a free fun kids event in Half Term – Wed Feb 17

You can join us for any of these events.

Our last event for 2009 was the annual Nativity service on Christmas Eve. Its a wonderful atmospheric occasion with hot drinks, Christmas cake, mince pies etc. The children wowed us with their usual play about the birth of Jesus, this year with stray donkeys, flying stars and an innkeeper with attitude! We were entertained by the charming and highly skilled Kids Choir 2000 led by Les Titford on  the guitar. They sang some familiar Christmas songs, some of their own compositions and then led us in Carols to finish. It was a lovely way to kick off the Christmas weekend and set us up for the great events to come.

We had a tuxedo and ball gowns evening for the TV final of Strictly Come Dancing. Cheese and wine and lovely home made cakes were on offer. Guys dressed in their best outfits, women in their finest dresses and the final itself did not disappoint and lived up to the occasion. Pictures here.

Rayleigh Vineyard held its annual Kids Christmas Party in December. 45 children had a wonderful afternoon [see pictures here]. Bouncy castles, pass  the parcel, musical statues and bumps, face painting, McDonalds Happy Meal and toy, visit from a real, live miniature barn owl, disco dancing, prizes galore and to round off a fabulous afternoon, a visit from Santa with special gifts to whet our appetite before the big day itself.

Every Christmas Rayleigh Vineyard makes up some hampers to give away to people who particularly struggle at this time of year. Full of Christmas goodies to whet any appetite they are always well received. Our Compassion Ministry, which serves to help out anyone who is less well off than we are, managed to give away a record 10 hampers this year. All hampers supplied by Give A Hamper.

We had a gangsters and molls Murder Mystery party before Christmas. Here is a pic of the motley crew. Can you guess who the murderer was? It was one of the 3 ladies sitting on the sofa in the middle…

Every year Rayleigh Town Council holds a Christmas Fair to turn on the lights in Rayleigh High Street. This year as usual Rayleigh Vineyard had a stall to give away lots of goodies. More pics here.

We managed to give out 1,000 chocolate bars and 300 cakes to hungry locals, free of charge. We also gave out lots of invites to the Kids Christmas Party. Plus we had free face painting. The rain stayed away which was a real bonus although it was mighty cold once the sun had gone down. The lights were switched on at 6pm by Southend United Footballers to a great roar of approval. A great time was had by all at the end of the evening.

The Kids Ministry at Rayleigh Vineyard is changing!! Planet Kids will be launched on 1^st December and will be split into 3 different age groups. Tiny babes up to 2 years olds will become the SHOOTING STARS. The 2 year olds up to 5 year olds will be the ROCKETS and the 6 to 10 year olds will become the COMETS.

Anna Favier has been our Kids Coordinator for 3 years and has done an amazing job with the children’s ministry in the Vineyard, but she is now going to develop the women’s ministry as her main focus and as one of our core leaders.

Planet Kids is an exciting new venture for us as a church and we are all looking forward to the changes that will be made as our Children’s Ministry grows. Planet Kids meets on a Sunday morning at Downhall School during Sunday Vineyard (10.30 to Noon).

Rayleigh Vineyard held a Kids Party on Oct 31^st. The theme was Peter Pan and it was fancy dress. We had food, games, prizes, dancing, loads of activities. Mermaid Island where we did loads of drawing and colouring. Put the cross on the Treasure Island map to guess where the gold is hidden. Tee Pee soft play corner for the very young ones. Loads of food and drink was had by all. Red Indian bumps and statues at the end of the day rounded off a lovely and thoroughly enjoyable evening!”