“Enlarge the space of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back” (from the Bible – Isaiah 54). This prophetic call is both poetic and practical. It invites us to imagine Mercy not as a fixed structure, but as a tent—flexible, responsive, and open to movement. In our WMM Strategic Framework, this vision is captured in the priority: Stretching and Widening Tent Pegs—a call to consider new opportunities for Mercy Mission in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Unlike a building, a tent is vulnerable. It flutters in the wind, it requires constant tending, and it offers little insulation from the world around it. But it is also mobile. It can be pitched where the need is greatest. It can be expanded to welcome others. It can be a place of encounter, of dialogue, of shared purpose. The point of a tent is not to stay within it (unless we need its protection and shelter), it is a stepping or starting point for experiencing something new.
In our own history, the tent has deep resonance. It was under a tent at Waitangi that Te Tiriti was signed. It was also there that Bishop Pompallier secured the protection of religious freedom—an early act of expanding the tent to include all faiths. Today, we are called to do the same: to stretch the tent pegs of Mercy toward those at the margins, to build new partnerships, and to inspire others to join us in mission-driven action
Catherine McAuley once said, “The poor need help today, not next week.” Her words remind us that Mercy is not static. It moves. It responds. It adapts. As partners in mission of Mercy and in our ministries, let us ask each other: where is the tent of Mercy being stretched in our context? And how might we help hold the ropes steady as we widen the space for others to enter?
Dave Mullin, Ko te Hapai O | Executive Director