BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY Bishop Carolyn Tyler-Guidry of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first female appointed to be a presiding elder in the Fifth Episcopal District of the AME Church and the second female bishop in the denomination. Bishop Tyler-Guidry is a member of Sigma Gamma Rho sorority.
Biography
Tyler-Guidry was born on August 25, 1937 in Jackson, Mississippi. Tyler-Guidry attended J.P. Campbell College in Jackson and received an Associate of Arts Degree in Business and Secretarial Science degree. She then began working for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Tyler-Guidry held the women's voter registration chair. In 1964, she was hired by the Security Pacific Bank in California where she worked for twelve years.
In 1977, Tyler-Guidry attended the Los Angeles Bible School to pursue the path of ministry. Tyler-Guidry was the pastor of the First African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church inIndio, California. Her administration benefited the congregation with renovations to the church and parsonage, and the instigation of a day care center. In 1983, she was appointed to the Cain Memorial A.M.E. Church in Bakersfield, California, where she served for five years. Cary B. Tyler, her husband, died in 1988.
In 1989, Tyler-Guidry became the first female to be appointed to a major metropolitan church when she was appointed to the Walker Temple A.M.E. Church, with 600 members, in Los Angeles.
In 1994, she became the first female appointed to presiding elder in the Fifth Episcopal District. Tyler-Guidry went on to become the second female bishop elected in the A.M.E. Church in July 2004. Also in 2004, she received her master's of theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Along with her ministry, there are numerous other organizations she has been involved in. Tyler-Guidry served as the secretary on the board of the John F. Kennedy Hospital in Indio, president of the Riverside County Board of Mental Health, and Treasurer of the national board of One Church One Child.
Upon her election, Tyler-Guidry was appointed to serve as the presiding prelate of the 16th Episcopal district of the AME Church, comprising Suriname, Guyana, the Windward Islands, the Virgin Islands, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Cuba and London, England. At the 48th Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the AME Church, she was appointed to serve as bishop of the 8th Episcopal District, which comprises the US states of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Tyler-Guidry is the widow of Donovan Guidry, a retired officer in the United States Army, who died in June 2007 after a lengthy illness. She is the mother of six children, grandmother of twelve and great-grandmother of three.
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