McGuire, George Alexander

(Mar. 26, 1866-Nov. 10, 1924). Founder of the African Orthodox Church, a body for Negro Episcopalians dissatisfied with the Episcopal Church. He was born in Antigua, British West Indies, and graduated from the Moravian Theological Seminary, St. Thomas Island. He came to the United States in 1894, and was ordained deacon on June 29, 1896, and priest on Oct. 22, 1897. After ministries in Cincinnati, Richmond, and Philadelphia, he became archdeacon of the Convocation of Arkansas, a convocation for African American Episcopalians. He served as field secretary for the American Church Institute for Negroes. In 1919 he joined the work of Marcus Garvey and the United Negro Improvement Association of the World. On Sept. 2, 1921, he organized the African Orthodox Church, and on Sept. 28, 1921, he was ordained and consecrated bishop by Joseph Rene Vilatte, an episcopi vaganti. He died in New York City.