When she was 16, Dianne Diamond was like many teenagers when it comes to religion and spirituality. She’d had enough. She desperately wanted to never go to another service again. 

“There were so many horrible things that were happening in the name of religion,” said Diamond, who grew up practicing Judaism. 

Many aspects have changed in the decades since. 

Diamond, who lives in Port Townsend, is part of the 140-member congregation at Unity Spiritual Enrichment Center, which will host its ninth annual Festival of Lights Crafts Faire and Cookie Extravaganza Nov. 30 through Dec. 2 at 3918 San Juan Ave. Many handcrafted and home-baked items will be available for purchase, and a silent auction will include a variety of goods and services. 

“It is our Unity community presentation,” the Rev. Pam Douglas-Smith said. “It takes a village to pull off the Festival of Lights for our whole community of Port Townsend.”

Ten percent of the proceeds from the three-day event will benefit the Jefferson County Winter Shelter, which is run in partnership with the Community Outreach Association Shelter Team and OlyCAP at American Legion Post 26 in downtown Port Townsend. 

Douglas-Smith has been the minister at Unity since March 2003, when services were held in a rented space at the Masonic hall. Even before her time, she said, Unity has provided monthly donations from $500 to $1,000 to a variety of nonprofit organizations. 

Diamond didn’t know that when she first moved to the area. 

Just a few months after 9/11, Diamond got involved in the Port Townsend Peace Movement. One of the ways the organization funded itself was through sales from peace cards. She was surprised one day six years later, in December 2008, to receive a $500 contribution from Unity Spiritual Enrichment Center. 

“I thought it would be rude to come and sell the peace cards without sitting in on a service,” Diamond said. “So I came and sat in the very back row, and they started to sing this song, ‘Now I’m Home,’ and I cried all the way through that service.” 

It really hit home when the congregation sang the phrase “Shalom, Shalom,” Diamond said. 

That song is performed at the beginning of every Sunday service, said Douglas-Smith, who remembered Diamond’s tears from 10 years ago. 

“I just reacted in a way I hadn’t expected — like I’ve never reacted before,” Diamond said. “I knew it wasn’t just for Unity. It would help other people in this community like it helped me.”

Between 70 and 80 people typically attend a Sunday service, Douglas-Smith said. And at the center’s annual meeting last February, about 50 people stayed after a regular service to discuss their monthly tithe recipients. An hourlong discussion followed, and the slate of 12 recipients — nearly half of which were brand new — was approved unanimously.  

“People were impassioned,” Douglas-Smith said. “It comes with a lot of heart, caring and compassion before the gift.”

Douglas-Smith said Unity is part of the interfaith movement in Port Townsend as well as the Jefferson Ministers’ Alliance. 

“Instead of working at odds, we’re collaborative in a way that’s really special to Port Townsend,” she said. 

The Festival of Lights — the center’s biggest fundraiser of the year — is part of those goals, and the minister brings home-baked goods, too. Douglas-Smith’s Seventh Heaven bars, which have become a requested item, will be part of the cookie extravaganza. Patrons can buy them individually or in a baker’s dozen. 

Arts and crafts items from local artists and members of the congregation will be on sale, and there also will be a variety of holiday decorations. Psychic readers will be available for half-hour and hour-long sessions. 

Hours of operation will be from noon to 6 p.m. Nov. 30, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 1, and from 1 to 4 p.m. Dec. 2. Admission is free.

For more information, visit www.unitypt.org.