By AFRO Staff
The Right Rev. Carolyn Guidry, the 122nd elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, died May 3, the church announced. She was 87.
The retired prelate died at home after a brief illness; she was surrounded by her family, The Christian Recorder – the A.M.E. Church’s newspaper – reported.
Guidry was born in Jackson, Miss., on Aug. 25, 1937. She received an associate’s degree in business and secretarial science from J.P. Campbell College in Jackson, then went on to study economics at Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, Miss. In 1977, she graduated from Los Angeles Bible School (under the auspices of Talbot Seminary) with a four-year certificate in religion and Bible. She later earned a master’s in theology from Fuller Theological Seminary.
The cleric put her business degrees – and 12 years experience at Security Pacific Bank in California – to good use during her ministry. Guidry’s first pastoral appointment was to First A.M.E. Church in Indio, Calif. Under her leadership, the congregation undertook a massive renovation of the church building and parsonage and established a Day Care Center. She also founded the Unity Center for Human Development, a community faith-based project funded by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). In 1983, she was assigned to Cain Memorial A.M.E. Church in Bakersfield, Calif. Using her business acumen, she led the Bakersfield congregation in purchasing adjacent property, now valued at over $3 million, where they established a day care center and several community service programs.
In 1989, the trailblazing minister became the first female pastor appointed to a major metropolitan congregation when she was assigned to Walker Temple A.M.E. Church in Los Angeles. Then she became the first first female presiding elder in the Fifth Episcopal District in 1994. She served in that post until she was elected and consecrated the 122nd A.M.E. bishop in 2004, becoming the second woman to hold that title.
In her first post as bishop, Guidry was assigned presiding prelate to the 16th Episcopal District from July 2004 to July 2008. During that time she advanced several education and economic initiatives, including the first Annual Christian Education Conference, a ministerial training program in partnership with Payne Theological Seminary, several economic development projects in the district and several micro-business ventures in Haiti. From 2008 to 2012, Bishop Guidry was assigned to the Eighth Episcopal District, which includes the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, which were still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.
She was retired by the General Conference in 2012.
Guidry was a member of various social, educational, civic and interdenominational organizations that serve to uplift human kind, including her sorority Sigma Gamma Rho, the Board of The National Council of Churches and One Church, One Child. Earlier in her life she had also worked for the NAACP and chaired the women’s voter registration in Jackson.
Bishop Guidry received many honors and awards and has been featured in Ebony magazine. The California State Legislative Caucus honored her as California’s “Woman of the Year” and the Women of Religious Achievement as “Woman of our Times.” In 2008, she received an honorary doctorate of humane letters for her contributions to the world and the Christian community.
Bishop Guidry is survived by five sons, one daughter, 12 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, and many sons and daughters in the ministry.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been finalized.