The Ironton area Ministerial Association will have its annual Martin Luther King, Jr. events Sunday.

Rob Hale, pastor of the Ironton First Church of the Nazarene and president of the Ironton Area Ministerial Association, said the reason for the unity march and service is because there is so much disunity in the country.

“There always seems to be a reason that people are against each other, for whatever reason — culture, what they believe, where they are from,” he said. “What we have tried to do in Ironton, as a ministerial association, is foster an atmosphere of unity, where we love each other in spite of our differences.”

He said that even within the church there is disunity.

“There is this thing called denominations. So, what we try to do is come together,” Hale said. “Now there are a lot more that come to this than just a few years ago.”

He said around 150 normally attend, but he expects more people this year because the weather is supposed to be nice.

The third annual unity march will begin at 4:15 p.m. at the Central Christian Church parking lot. Participants will march down Ninth Street to the New Jerusalem Christian Center, 817 S. Eighth St., for a unity service which will have Rev. Sam Peters, the new pastor of First United Methodist Church in Ironton, deliver the message.

“I’ve mapped it out. It is only about a half mile,” Hale said.

As part of the unity service, Isaac “Duke” Adams will lead a community choir.

“He is a very sought after soloist in the area,” Hale said. “He has a beautiful voice. He’s really good.”

Hale said this is the fifth year for the MLK unity events. He said members of the Ironton community would go over to Ashland, Kentucky to join the events over there. Kristen Martin, who lead the community choir for years, approached Hale about doing a march in Ironton.

“I asked her if anyone would come and she said ‘It doesn’t matter, whoever comes, comes,’” Hale recalled. “She said she remembered doing the march as a small child and all the children looked forward to it and it was a lot of fun. And she is right, it is a lot of fun.”

The march and the service are open to the public and all are invited to attend.