Beside an ancient sea bank stands an ark. Moored to a quay ready to commence a journey. Saint Mary’s Church Greencastle is now separated from the sea by twelve lanes of motorway but the journey is still present. Walking through a grove of trees or across a paved causeway the busy road is left behind. Timber seats on piled up stones offer a rest and a place to meet. A curved wall sweeps out into the landscape giving guidance into an enclosed gathering space, the wall is warm and bright. The space between wall and sanctuary ‘the street’ leads to a stained glass wall of baptism and the beginning of a spiritual journey. Huge timber doors create the threshold to the building without disturbing the sense of journey. The place of baptism and entrance into the sanctuary is marked by a second set of doors embedded within a glass wall. A stone baptismal font of fossils and moving water is cupped by a curved yellow wall of light. This is the place of entry, the spiritual threshold, into the community of the church. The building is a vessel, simple in form and detail, true to material, giving an uncluttered dignity to the events and elements within while facilitating the full and active participation of the entire assembly. The assembly is placed in such a way as to engage them fully in the liturgy, gathered around the Table of the Word and the Table of the Eucharist. The vessel is made whole by the community, without which it would have no relevance. The new church accommodates 350 seated and is located to the front of the site giving it a prominence in the local area and releasing a large area of the rear of the site for car parking and future development. The building is approached through an external landscape designed to increase the sense of privatisation, distancing the assembled from their everyday life. From the garden the gathering space is approached beneath a canopy providing shelter. This is supported on one side by a painted rendered wall and on the other by a tapering concrete column. The building has been set out in three distinct areas. Secular facilities are located behind the rendered wall, eschewed from the main assembly, addressing the sloped boundary to the rear. This building is of simple load-bearing construction with isolated steel members. The gathering and baptismal areas are located between the place of assembly and the secular wing. These areas of gathering, welcoming and meeting are open and bright with a glazed roof over and stained glass to the south. The ‘place of assembly’ is located to the front of the site with a large south facing stained glass window addressing the local community. In-situ concrete frame to eaves level with steel members spanning from eaves to a central truss allows an appropriate simplicity of form. The walls have minimal decoration or clutter. The play of light from the stain glass windows on these simple plains creates an atmosphere of calm allowing contemplation and rest. The windows within the place of assembly are stained glass with no views to the outside completing the transition from the secular world to the spiritual world. Curved plywood panels float overhead illuminated by north facing clerestorey glazing. Underfoot the floor falls towards the central tiled sanctuary. The altar, ambo and chair are of native elm with bench and stool seating in oak. This inner heart is accessed through a four-metre high opening in a powerfully evocative metre thick wall. The materials both inside and out are chosen to express function and permanence, glass connects east to west and stone details facilitate structural and servicing expression. Entrance doors are iroko. Floors are variously tiled and carpeted.