Now the key symbolises security in a different way. It is the password allowing entry to those who belong in the home, participation in family life and an address. Claiming an address is glued onto our identity and opens to participation in the wider society — stuff can be sent there, it gives access to council and government services and hospitality can be provided and received. Not having an address is isolating and sentences us to “wander the face of the earth”.

This month’s issue on sheltering the homeless focuses on responses towards those without a home. Where once we could dismiss homelessness as a problem in other world cities, now it is on our doorstep. We both advocate for resettling more refugee families in our country and at the same time watch reports of our families separated by homelessness and sheltering in cars and sheds. We protest, feeling appalled, confused and helpless. We hear loud agreement that this situation is not all right — either in our country or in the rest of the world — and that we have to do something quickly.

Our contributors this month, while acknowledging the reality, tell us of the practices of mercy that are giving shelter to the homeless. So many people are wearing the doorway of mercy down to bedrock in their efforts to ensure that all will have somewhere safe and warm to lay their heads.

Mary Betz and Jo Ayers remind us that hospitality, acceptance and support are at the heart of homemaking — whether that is in individual homes or in the world home. Bruce Munro describes the role of a night-shelter as emergency housing, a ministry of mercy offered in many places in New Zealand and around the world. Habtom Zeru tells his story of escaping Eritrea as a teenager and of being chosen in a Sudanese refugee camp to start a new life in New Zealand. Colin James and Michael Melville urge the government to commit to worthwhile, long-term solutions for homelessness. With Louise Carr-Neil they point to shelter as key in the well-being of our people. Daniel O’Leary takes our focus wider urging us to consider the implications of being at home in the universe. All contributors — writers, poets, commentators and artists — offer challenge and hope. While big solutions to world homelessness are essential, every act of hospitality on our part fosters co-operation, communion and at-homeness in our world.

We are grateful to all who have contributed to this July issue. And as is our custom, the last word is of blessing.

Published in Tui Motu InterIslands magazine. Issue 206, July 2016