Black Baptist church marks 60 years of spirituality and service in Paso Robles

Nearly 60 years later, church chaplain Kenneth Parish still remembers hearing the laughter of the children at a Paso Robles affordable housing community.

As his parents, Cecil and Louise Parish, laid out a picnic for families living at the Oak Park Community, children threw open the doors to their apartments and ran out to greet them.

“I was a youngster, but I’ll never forget them doing that and how powerful it was,” said Kenneth Parish, chaplain of New Light Missionary Baptist Church in Paso Robles. “It just started with a little handful of kids before you know it the whole neighborhood was coming to this spot getting food.”

Parish’s parents paid for food for the Oak Park community out of their own pockets. “They just did it out of love and kindness for helping the community become better,” he said.

Parish and his congregation have continued that legacy of service to the people of Paso Robles.

Oct. 5 marked 60 years since Cecil and Louise Parish first opened the doors of their Paso Robles home to worshipers, many of whom were Black Baptists who had recently moved to the Central Coast from Southern states, their youngest son said.

They found a spiritual sanctuary at what became New Light Missionary Baptist Church — making it one of the oldest Black American churches on the Central Coast, he said.

After outgrowing the Parish family home, the church moved to a location on Riverside Avenue. It relocated again in the 1970s to 745 20th Street in Paso Robles, where it has been ever since.

Cecil Parish led New Light as pastor until his death in 2009. He was succeeded by Pastor George Lartigue for a short time, until his death the same year, Kenneth Parish said.

The younger Parish has led the church his parents started for the past 12 years.

“The chaplain for me is a life calling,” Parish said.

While a pastor focuses mostly on the needs of church parishioners, he explained, a chaplain goes out into the community to serve the needs of the vulnerable — feeding the hungry, helping secure housing and providing counseling, as well as talking about religion.

New Light Missionary Baptist Church has a longtime commitment to serve “the least, last, lost and left behind in the community,” Parish said.

This year, the church took its efforts a step further by forming a nonprofit organization — Faith, Hope and Love (FHL) — that focuses on preventing incarceration by supporting veterans, homeless people and other vulnerable populations in the North County.

Memories of family shape Paso Robles church’s mission

Before taking over as chaplain of New Light Missionary Baptist Church, Parish worked as a chaplain in the prison system, where he served the emotional and spiritual needs of incarcerated adults and youth for about 20 years.

Parish said military experience created psychological wounds for many of the veterans he met behind bars. That’s why he is now focused on supporting veterans and preventing incarceration through FHL, he said.

In creating the nonprofit, Parish said he was inspired by memories of his family, particularly the experiences of his three older brothers, Cecil, John and Don, he said.

“All my big brothers, they took care of me. They watched out for me, they protected me, and emotionally, they were just there for me,” Parish said. “They were my heroes. And even to this day, my brothers were just so inspirational.”

Cecil Parish Jr. and John Parish were both veterans.

Don Parish was a Hall of Fame linebacker for Stanford University before playing for the St. Louis Cardinals in the National Football League in the 1970s, Kenneth Parish said.

Don Parish suffered from traumatic brain injury from his time spent playing football, Kenneth Parish said, and was unhoused in Los Angeles for many years.

“I think that’s my greatest motivation, watching my brother and all that he went through. It’s just a part of me,” Parrish said. “When I see somebody on the street ... I can see my brother.”

Chaplain calls on SLO County to advance opportunities for Black community

In addition to serving the Black community through his work at the church, Parish is the second vice president of the San Luis Obispo County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Both Cecil and John Parish were the student body presidents of Paso Robles High School, which was predominately white back in the 1960s, Kenneth Parish said.

“It was just incredible what they did during the ’60s,” Parish said. “So I watched that when I was little, I remember all that. I was inspired by them.”

Today, the city of Paso Robles has a need for greater diversity in leadership positions in the community, Parish said.

“This community right here has been predominantly white-owned and operated, and the people of color have been on the outside, not a part of the mainstream,” he said. “That’s the history of Paso Robles and pretty much throughout the county.”

Parish’s observations have been corroborated by a recent report from the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office, which shows that white people are overrepresented in positions of leadership in the county, according to the Sheriff’s Office’s Unity Committee.

Parish said he’d like to see more people of color represented at City Hall, local banks and in other positions of authority throughout Paso Robles.

“Don’t lock a group out,” Parish said. “Open the door, make it fair and level the playing field.”

Paso Robles church celebrates 100 years

The New Light Missionary Baptist Church isn’t the only church in Paso Robles that celebrated an anniversary in October. Trinity Lutheran Church, located at 940 Creston Road, celebrated a century in Paso Robles on Oct. 24, according to a news release sent by the church.

The Adler family started the church in July 1921 out of a home in Paso Robles, according to a history of the church on its website. In October 1921, eight voting members of the church adopted a church charter and later purchased a lot on Ninth and Vine Street, where the congregation met until 1998, when a larger location was established on Creston Road.

Today, the Ninth and Vine Street building is used for Sunday school and meeting rooms, but the original church bell still tolls at Creston Road, according to the website.

This story was originally published October 31, 2021 at 5:05 AM.