Bishop Carolyn Tyler Guidry
122nd Elected and Consecrated Bishop of the AME Church (Retired)
Long before the Right Reverend Carolyn Tyler Guidry became the 122nd Elected and Consecrated Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she seemed destined for a life of commitment and significance to her church and her community. She was born and raised in Jackson Mississippi and came of age in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement. In 1959, Bishop Tyler Guidry began to work for Medgar Evers and the NAACP. Here she worked as the women’s voter registration chairperson for that organization. From this work Bishop Tyler Guidry worked to coordinate Freedom Rider activities between, SNCC, CORP and the NAACP out of the office of the Jackson, Mississippi NAACP.
In 1983 she was assigned to Cain Memorial A. M. E. Church in Bakersfield, California. In 1989, Rev. Carolyn Tyler was assigned to the 600 member Walker Temple A. M. E. Church in Los Angeles, California. This assignment gave her the distinction of being a trailblazer again, the first female appointed to a major metropolitan charge in the A M E Church. She was appointed as the first female Presiding Elder in the Fifth Episcopal District in 1994 and served in that capacity until elected and consecrated the 122nd AME Bishop in 2004. She was assigned Presiding Prelate to the 16th Episcopal District (including the Caribbean, Europe, Central America, and initiated the exploration of a congregation in Leon, France which now has a vibrant growing congregation. Under Bishop Tyler Guidry’s leadership, the 16th District purchased its first Episcopal Residence in Jamaica to provide a permanent home base for its bishop. She started the first Annual Christian Education Conference, and partnered with Payne Seminary in a Ministerial Training Program. Economic Development projects, seeded through her, were established in all conferences in the 16th District. In 2008 Bishop Tyler Guidry was assigned to the Eighth Episcopal District, comprising Mississippi and Louisiana.
The Right Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry received her Associate of Arts Degree in Business and Secretarial Science from J. P. Campbell College in Jackson, MS, and she studied Economics at Tougaloo College in Tougaloo, MS. She is also a graduate of the Fuller Theological Seminary with a Master of Arts in Theology.
She was awarded an honorary degree, The Doctor of Humane Letters, by Payne Theological Seminary in 2009, and she was included in the archives of the HistoryMakers in 2004. In April, 2011 the Right Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry was inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Board of Preachers at Morehouse College. The Turner Seminary presented her The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019. Carolyn Eujean Jackson Tyler Guidry is the mother of five sons and one daughter, thirteen grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren.
