Hundreds of people who are prepared to put their bodies on the line to protect asylum seekers looking for sanctuary in Australian churches have attended training sessions across the country.
Some 115 churches have vowed to provide sanctuary to 267 asylum seekers, including children, facing deportation back to Nauru.
In Melbourne, more than 100 people attended the Wesley Uniting Church on Sunday to learn how they could help protect the asylum seekers if they do look for sanctuary in the church.
"We think it's unconscionable that these vulnerable, needy people could be sent back into the very environment that caused them harm in the first place," Wesley's Reverend Alistair Macrae told AAP.
The High Court has ruled the federal government has the right to send the asylum seekers back to Nauru after they received medical treatment in Australia.
But the minister says that's not going to sway him.
"They do have a legal right to do it but for us it's primarily a moral issue," Mr Macrae said.
"At various times (in history) the church has exercised civil disobedience in the name of a higher good."
Training sessions were held in every capital city across Australia on Sunday organised by the National Church Sanctuary Movement.
The federal government has said it will return the 267 asylum seekers.
But Immigration Minister Peter Dutton has suggested asylum seekers won't be dragged out of churches if they sought sanctuary there.
Mr Macrae's daughter Fiona, 22, attended Sunday's training session with her 23-year-old friend Frazer McKinlay.
Fiona Macrae said people wanted to be involved given so many women and children were among the group of 267 asylum seekers.
"They are here to be helped and it's very in our faces now," she said.
"People are realising it's time to take a stand because it's not happening offshore - they are right here now and we can do something about it."
Sunday's training involved explaining the potential roles volunteers could fill including: sanctuary shift captain; human rights or legal observer; and police and media liaison positions.
