As the Anglican Dean of Brisbane Peter Catt leads the movement to offer his church as a "sanctuary" for asylum seekers threatened with deportation, Queanbeyan archdeacon and rector of Queanbeyan and District Anglican Church, the venerable Elizabeth Dyke said becoming a "sanctuary" is something she would encourage her congregation to consider.

Across the country varied congregations, including the Catholic and Uniting Churches, have joined ranks in offering up their church as a safe haven.

"As the rector here I would certainly be wanting to urge the church and the congregation under my care to offer sanctuary; to be a refuge and a shelter; to be a support and a help for all of these people who are finding themselves without help," archdeacon Elizabeth said.

"These people are throwing themselves on the compassion of our country, which is why they are coming here, and all the government seems to be saying is 'we have no compassion, our hearts are stone, our borders are gates of bronze, you may not come in'."

International agencies including the United Nations have condemned the Australian government and its foreign policy relating to asylum seekers.

Yet on Wednesday, February 3 the High Court of Australia ruled the federal government's offshore detention regime was lawful. The six to one majority decision meant about 250 asylum seekers from Nauru, currently on local shores, will be sent back to the island, including 37 babies who were born in hospitals around Australia.

"This is not the way to treat vulnerable, abused and traumatised people. They need compassion, care, and tenderness, not an iron fist in a metal glove," archdeacon Elizabeth said.

She said the cause of concern revolves around a lack of compassion.

"I think what worries me most is that this issue is about compassion, and caring for the most vulnerable and powerless people," Archdeacon Elizabeth said.

"And here we have people who don't have power, and are being sent back to a place where not only were they traumatised to start with but they have been re-traumatised and sent to a place where as the Dean [of Brisbane] said; it's almost tantamount to state sanctioned abuse."