JENNINGS — Union Baptist Church, at 1014 South Main St., will mark its centennial with a two-day celebration next weekend.

The event will begin at  9 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, with a parade along South Main and Renshaw streets, Wilbert Rochelle Avenue and G.C. Chaney Street.

A meet-and-greet and recreational activities will follow. A youth choir will perform at 6:30 p.m.

An anniversary service featuring the Rev. Michael Wright of Abbeville will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 16. A meal will follow.

Other activities will include the placing of a time capsule and the sale of a souvenir book, T-shirts and other memorabilia.

The church was organized in 1916 by the Rev. H.L. Steward by consolidating two churches. The first church was a wooden structure facing south of Main Street. It was destroyed by a fire in the mid-1940s.

A second church was built, but was torn down in 1979 to make way for a new church facility.

The current church was completed in 1969.

The church added an education building in 1980 and completed a family center in 2006.

Six pastors have led the church. The Rev. Gerald Perkins is the current pastor. He said that the church has about 350 members.

Perkins himself is a lifelong member. “This is my home church,” he said. “I never thought I’d be pastor of my home church and succeed my own pastor Dr. G.C. Chaney, who pastored here for 59 years.”

Chaney retired and the church selected Perkins as pastor in 1985. “It seems like it was just yesterday,” he said. “I am still just as excited serving the church as I was 31 years ago. I have enjoyed it tremendously.”