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Carrying just a sandwich and soda water for sustenance, John McKay drives his mobility scooter to the corner of Munroe St, Napier, outside St Patrick’s Church, just like he has for the past six days.
The sandal-wearing 86-year-old will be there for the next six hours and sayshe’ll continue to spend his days standing out in the cold with his cardboard sign fixed to the front of the scooter with a simple message:
“I am sitting here praying for peace in our world … In Gaza about 50,000 dead and counting … In Ukraine, in Sudan and God knows where else. You might ask why pray, well what else? What are you doing? What do you suggest?”
“I think I know it off by heart now,” McKay told Hawke’s Bay Today.
As of Monday, the death toll in Gaza from the past seven months of war was estimated by Palestine authorities to have hit at least 34,000. McKay said his figure of 50,000 was not official, but he felt the toll was likely to be higher than that estimate.
The former lawyer and world traveller has seen many things during his nearly nine decades on Earth, but the unfairness of atrocities remains on his mind. He’s got friends in many war-torn places, and he said his heart often yearns for their safety.
“I’ll be honest, I have been really upset and worried (I’m not the only one) about what’s happening around the world, especially in Gaza. It’s not just Gaza; there are unfair and miserable wars going on all over the place at the moment.
“I kept on waking up in the middle of the night, thinking to myself and hearing a voice in my head saying, ‘John, what the hell are you doing? You’re doing nothing!’ I thought, I was 86 years old; what do you expect me to do?”
John McKay will continue to sit outside St Patrick's Church in Napier with his sign in the name of peace. Photo / Warren Buckland
Inspired by the success of peace protestors during the Vietnam War and his faith, McKay said he decided to take up his post outside the church with permission from the local priest.
“I thought, I’ll see what I can do. I wrote a little statement on some spare cardboard that I stuck on the end of my mobility scooter. It’s just to get people feeling like we can talk about things.”
He said despite one small disagreement with one person, he hasn’t yet had a single abusive response.
“You would be amazed. The good people of Napier have adopted me in some way or another because I have now talked to hundreds of people. The majority don’t register, but a large minority stop and look at the sign and read it.
“It only works if you start with peace in your heart. Individuals have to find peace.”
Be it a simple thumbs up or “keep up the good work mate”, the encouragement has prompted McKay to say he’ll keep going “till he drops”.
While prayer is encouraged, McKay said he never intended to make it overtake the key message.
“I refuse to argue about religion. That’s not what we are here for. It’s all about love and caring, the millions of people suffering and dead, and the little we can do.”
He said there were “periods of no one,” but that was fine because he had “learned over many years to value my solitude”.
“I’m an apostle for kindness,” he said.
“There are lots of good people in Napier, and by putting myself out into a public place with a little sign and talking to people, it’s having a strange effect, and people are doing kind things.”
Mitchell Hageman joined Hawke’s Bay Today in January 2023. From his Napier base, he writes regularly on social issues, arts and culture, and the community. He has a particular love for stories about ordinary people doing extraordinary things.
