Teri Hawkins, minister of the Unity Community of Central Oregon, plans an Easter event and discussion Sunday at the Tower Thea-tre, the first in the spiritual community's monthly series of events at the Tower.

For Teri Hawkins and other members of the Unity Community of Central Oregon, some things are universal.

God’s presence in all people and all things, for example. Or central themes of the major world religions, such as love, forgiveness and everlasting life.

On Sunday, Hawkins will use Easter’s metaphor of everlasting life to discuss the Easter story from some surprising perspectives – those of Mary Magdalene, Judas Iscariot and Joseph of Arimathea. And, Hawkins said, she will teach an unorthodox interpretation of the story of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection – that Jesus did not suffer.

”If you look at the stories of these people, you can find your own story,” said Hawkins, who is the minister of the Unity Community of Central Oregon.

Mary Magdalene, she said, allows her beloved, Jesus, to follow his destiny.

Judas teaches us that we all must follow our own truths.

And Joseph of Arimathea demonstrates courage when he acquires the body of Jesus and buries it in his own tomb.

All of these are lessons contemporary people can learn from, Hawkins said.

Sunday’s Easter service at the Tower Theatre (see ”If You Go”) is the Unity Community’s first event on Sundays at the Tower, a series of monthly events Hawkins hopes to offer Bend’s ”spiritual but not religious” community. Those are people, Hawkins said, who believe in God but don’t have a place to go with that belief. The Unity Community is not quite a religion and not quite a church – instead, Hawkins said, it is a place where the people believe in love and peace and the presence of the divine in all people, the central tenet of the Unity faith.

Sunday’s service will include music, poetry, reader’s theater and Hawkins’ message about the metaphors of Easter.

Members of the Unity Community of Central Oregon met for years in a small suite in a strip mall in south Bend. It was then known as the Unity Center for Positive Living. But the group recently gave up that space, changed its name and adopted a new mission, Hawkins said.

”Can we in Bend offer a spiritual community that has a definite statement of belief that can be open and universal without being dogmatic?” Hawkins said the community asked itself.

That mission led to the community’s rebirth, she said, and a new drive to reach out to more people through its monthly sessions at the Tower. How much more appropriate, then, for the community to launch its new format on Easter, which is symbolically the holiday of new beginnings and new life, Hawkins said.

Though the Unity Community of Central Oregon isn’t Christian, per se, and isn’t a church, it draws on the teachings and metaphors of Christianity, as it does those of Judaism, Hindu, Islam, Buddhism and Native American shamanism, Hawkins said.

”We follow the teachings of Christ, but also the teachings of Buddha and Mohammed and Krishna,” she said. ”We don’t want to take religion away. Our vision is making Central Oregon a place of complete understanding. That’s why we’re doing this.”

Hawkins, and others in her spiritual community, believe Central Oregon can be a ”light unto the world,” a place of peace and acceptance where all faces of God are respected. Religion, she said, can be divisive if we let it be.

”But it can’t be about who’s right and who’s wrong,” she said. ”It’s about what we can do to make a difference in this world.”

Hawkins had a high-powered career as an entrepreneur, motivational speaker and executive coach before she chose to give it up in 1996 to become a Unity minister. She moved to Bend in 2001 and has been working since then to lift the spirits of her community.

Congregation member Sam Smith said it’s working, and he’s excited at the prospect of the Unity Community reaching out to Bend and Central Oregon with Hawkins’ message.

”Not only is it a different format and a different feel, but Teri’s take on it is different,” Smith said.

If You Go

What: Reviving Spirit – Easter at the Tower with the Unity Community of Central Oregon

When: 10 a.m. Sunday

Where: Tower Theatre, 835 NW Wall St., Bend

Cost: Free

Contact: 388-1569