Jews, Muslims and Christians are being encouraged to “Walk Together”on Saturday October 25th as part of National Unity Day, being organised by activist group Welcome to Australia, while the Australian Christian Lobby is hosting “Solidarity Sunday“, a time to pray for persecuted Christians and minorities around the world on November 2.

Welcome to Australia has been running “Walk Together”for the last two years, but has organised the inaugural National Day of Unity following media reports of an increase in anti-Muslim attacks.

Welcome to Australia is working closely alongside the Lebanese Muslim Association, who are keen to promote National Mosque Open Day, which falls on the same date as Walk Together. Director of Welcome to Australia, Brad Chilcott a Pentecostal pastor from Adelaide, says the organisation felt it was the right time to invite Christians to stand with their Muslim neighbours in solidarity.

“This year, just by chance, the National Mosque Open Day and Walk Together fell on the same date. And I guess also that’s happened not by plan, but just by coincidence in a time when division and fear have taken over a lot of the national conversation where relationships between faith groups are suffering and there’s been racist attacks on Muslim women on the streets.

“We really just saw an opportunity to invite Australians to express unity and solidarity by visiting a mosque in the morning and learning a bit more about our Muslim neighbours and friends, and then walking together in the afternoon…”

The group has faced criticism for encouraging Christians to visit their local mosque, but Brad says he doesn’t believe Christians should be closed to the idea.

“My response is, first of all, I’m a pastor, I’m a Christian, and my friendship with people of Muslim faith doesn’t in any way diminish or undermine my commitment to my faith as being a follower of Jesus, and in fact it comes out of my faith. I want to stand with people who are suffering in whatever form that suffering takes.

“But also, I think there seem to be some Christians who say Islam is taking over or a threat to us, and to them I would simply say if someone else’s faith is a threat to your own, then you need to think about how strong your faith is.”

A week after the National Day of Unity is “Solidarity Sunday” on November 2, the Australian Christian Lobby’s campaign to get churches praying for persecuted religious minorities around the world not just Christians.

“There’s no doubt Christians are bearing the brunt of it. We’ve nothing short of religious cleansing in parts of Syria and northern Iraq,”says ACL Director Lyle Shelton. “But as we know, Yazidis have come under pressure, but also Muslim minorities—the Shia as well. So we want to remember that it’s not just Christians who are suffering.”

ACL’s event has been endorsed by many Christian groups including the Syrian and Coptic Orthodox Church, the Salvation Army, the Anglican Church, Baptist Church, Catholic Churches, various Pentecostal churches, Lutheran and Presbyterian Churches and other Christian organisations.

Lyle says 400 individual churches have signed up so far, and the hope is they’ll publicise the events in their local communities.

“The idea is to encourage not only awareness in the church, but to encourage churches to engage their local media–perhaps get a photo outside the church on Sunday with members of the church wearing the T-shirt with the Arabic “n”on it just as a visual demonstration so the wider community can see that Christians here are standing with these people who are being persecuted.”

The two events are not mutually exclusive. Some Eternity readers may support both, some only one. But organisers of both events have been careful to speak respectfully about each others events, with Brad praising Solidarity Sunday as a valuable and important day, and Lyle supporting the National Day of Unity.

“In principle it sounds like a great idea, to do anything that can encourage relationship with people of other faiths, particularly moderate Islam, is a really good thing,”Lyle said.