We hope you had a great summer and are all refreshed and ready for whatever the coming season has in store for you. Welcome to the Autumn term!

Summer of Fun

We took a break, kinda - we didn’t meet for our Sunday gatherings during August, but we packed the month with lots of fun activities. Here are just a few of the highlights below;

Small Groups

We are really excited to announce that our Autumn Small Groups are up and running! These are a great place to grow spiritually, make friends and have lots of fun. They will be meeting termly with a break in between. There is a great variety of groups on offer. We have training groups, activity groups and home groups. There’s one out there for everyone. Take a look here it’s not too late to sign up.

Our Sunday morning and evening gatherings have started back - with NEW Youth on Sundays!

New Offices!!

We have a new church midweek office space that in a previous life was a coffee shop. Here’s a link to the café, check it out! We are already using the room for administration, meetings and training. The English Café will be meeting here two Saturday mornings a month beginning soon. We are really looking forward to other opportunities that lie ahead for us as we start to make full use of these amazing facilities

​Church has Left the Building October – Acoustic night 

October 1 will see us, once again, entertaining local coffee drinkers with our Acoustic Night at Costa Coffee in Chester CH1 4LU. Come along and support the various acts, drink your beverage of choice and enjoy the fun. Hope to see you there.

​From Eurovision Song Contest parties to 24 hour prayer events, there has been lots to catch up on at Vineyard 53. But we'll start with a picture of the Big Blue Van!!!  ;) – just because we didn’t post it last time.

​Big Easter Breakfast
We celebrated Easter with not one, not two but three Big Easter Breakfasts! More than 150 people came along, brought their friends and enjoyed good food, champagne toasts, a time of worship and an Easter Reflection. The kids had fun with Easter themed activities too.

​Baptisms
Three ladies gave their stories of how they came to their decisions to follow Jesus and made a public declaration of this faith by following Jesus’ example and being baptised (in a big inflatable pool).  An Amazing Cake celebration followed …

​Dedication
It felt like we were full to capacity with over 240 people at our first dedication. There was an exciting vibe as three families dedicated five children/babies and invited their friends to come and see. It was a great time of celebration and meeting new people. 

​Women’s Retreat
We had our first ever Women’s Retreat in April. Eighteen women took a day away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life and embraced the opportunity to be still, spend time in worship, listening to Jesus and enjoying time with one another. 

​Alpha
Alpha started again! We are really excited about the newly designed Alpha videos that we are showing at this round of Alpha. Good food, good company, good discussion. Who could want for more? It’s not too late to join in the fun. Let us know at hello@vineyard53.org

​Church Has Left the Building 
In May CHLTB saw us gathering for our first Acoustic Evening in a packed local Costa coffee shop opened up for this very event.  Five different acts sang their socks off while the rest of us watched on drinking wonderful beverages. Such a popular event is sure to be repeated soon.

Evening Services
For those who are unable to make our morning gathering, we now offer an evening option, on the third Sunday of each month we have now launched an evening service. Refreshments are available from 7.00pm with the gathering starting at 7.30. Everybody is welcome. 

​Girls/Guys Night In
A few of us went along to Richmond Court recently where we served food and chatted with a number of people who for one reason or another are part of their ‘safe seats’ (nightly) programme. Others of us played video games with some of the residents and others offered manicures to anyone who wanted them.

​We are looking forward to partnering with Richmond Court in developing an allotment which has the potential to become amazing community space with raised beds and fruit trees. Watch this space.

Coming up:
Next Sunday (5th June) we have 'Picnic in the park' - not to be missed. Why not invite everyone you know to join us for fun, food and free ice-cream!

Our Summer 'Festival' themed party (Fri 8th July @ 8pm) is also a must for the diary! This is likely to be a massive highlight of our Vineyard 53 party year so be sure to spread the word and get your tickets early!   

Looking further ahead
A group of us, armed with tents and wellies (it always rains ;) ) will be going to camp at Momentum, a festival for students, 20s & 30s, 22nd-26th July, and/or New Wine Summer Festival, 31st July – 6th August. Let us know if you’d like to come along and join the fun and we'll get you the details you need.

​Vineyard 53 Summer of Fun
Like last year, Vineyard 53 will be taking a break from Sunday gatherings at Bridge House over August. However, we have a wonderful Summer of Fun in the pipeline including a walk up Snowdon, BBQs, huge inflatable fun Sunday, worship events and lots, lots more. Not to be missed!
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A lot is happening and it is really an exciting time to be part of Vineyard 53.

In February we celebrated our second birthday in style with worship, sharing stories (talk) and a series of films showing the highlights of the past year. The morning showed the huge variety of activities we have done and how much God has blessed our journey!

Vision Sunday

To set the trajectory for the coming year, we talked about vision – check out the talk here.

Church Has Left the Building

In February we also had inflatable Sunday! We took over half a large gym in Ellesmere Port and had various inflatable activities that both adults and children could participate in. Many new people from the local area came along and much fun was had by all.

Our CHLTB for March was a Prayer Walk. We met at a coffee shop in the centre of Chester and then dispersed throughout the City praying for Chester and different aspects of its culture, from creativity to education, from business and ….. It was a lot of fun.

Evening Services
We are so excited to launch our first evening service on March 20th. We will still be meeting in Bridge House and will meet from 7.00 with refreshments and the main gathering starting at 7.30.

Big Easter Breakfast(s)
We are having a few Big Easter Breakfasts this year. A number of people have kindly opened their homes for a time of reflection and a celebratory champagne breakfast on Easter morning.  Contact hello@vineyard53.org if you’d like to join us.

Baptism 
We are looking forward to celebrating our next Baptisms during our morning service on April 3rd. A number of people have signed up already and it promised to be a really exciting time.
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Alpha
The Alpha Course is about to start for the next session. This is a great, safe place for those new to the faith to come together, eat great food and ask questions as they explore this journey together. If you or someone you know would like to come along please contact hello@vineyard53.org we’d love to see you there.

Lent Reflections

During this time of Lent as we look forward to Easter we are producing weekly reflections. Feel free to check these out and join with us HERE.

Stop Press! Exciting News!

We are very proud to announce that we are now proud owners of a Big Blue Van! It’s the Vineyard 53 Blue and everything☺. We are so pleased not to have to keep renting a van each week!