George Alexander McGuire
Seventh Rector (1902-1905)...

George Alexander McGuire was born in 1866 in Sweets, Antigua, British West Indies. His father was an Anglican and his mother was a Moravian. In 1886 he graduated from Micro College, Antigua and in 1888 from the Moravian Theological Seminary in Nisky, St. Thomas then part of the Danish West Indies. Thereafter, he served a Moravian congregation in Frederiksted, St. Croix before emigrating to the United States in 1894. McGuire studied for the Episcopal ministry in Philadelphia for two years in Philadelphia under the Rev. Henry Laird Phillips and was confirmed in 1895. By June of 1896 McGuire was canonically resident in the Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio. In 1897 the Diocesan Missionary Committee nominated and confirmed McGuire as the minister for St. Andrew’s Mission in Cincinnati, OH; the Standing Committee recommended him for Priest’s Orders, and Bishop Boyd Vincent ordained him at the Church of the Advent. Rev. McGuire’s parochial report to the 1898 diocesan convention contains the following entry about St. Andrew’s “We have worshipped for one year in our present Mission Hall…. It is a much more desirable place than our former location; still, our greatest need for the further development of the work is a churchly edifice, however small. Our people can give very little towards such an object, and unless the churchmen of the diocese come to our help, we see no prospect of a church building. A beautiful altar was presented by the ladies of St. Cecelia’s Guild at Witsuntide. The outlook for the future is encouraging.” From 1899 to 1901 Rev. McGuire served historic St. Philip’s Church in Richmond, VA. In 1900 he married Ada Elizabeth Robert who was also a native of Antigua. In 1901 he was called as the 7th rector of St. Thomas.

During his five year tenure at St. Thomas Fr. McGuire interacted with some of Philadelphia’s most prominent African Americans families. He concelebrated with Revs. Henry L. Phillips and Edward G. Knight the marriage of prominent attorney and Sigma Pi Phi member John Cornelius Asbury to St. Thomas member Ida Elizabeth Bowser. He also He married Burrs, Blues, Trulears, Cowderys, and Jacksons. Fr. McGuire baptized Gorgas’, Dorseys, Mintons, Vennings, and John’s and Ida’s son David Bowser Asbury. He presented Montiers, Rosells, Burrs, Bowsers, Trulears, Warricks, Bustills, Woods, Dorseys and Laura Moort, likely the daughter of the late Rev. Dr. Paulus Moort, for confirmation. Fr. McGuire buried Dr. Rebecca Cole, Alfred Cassey, Henrietta Duterte, Sarah Mapp Douglass Douglass (widow of second rector Rev. William Douglass), Rev. Dr. Paulus Moort, and fourth rector Rev. John Pallam Williams. Seemingly, like his mentor the Rev. Henry L. Phillips, Fr. McGuire was a “law and order” proponent of the politics of respectability. In a 1903 graduation address at the Howard School in Wilmington, DE shortly after a heinous crime had been committed in the area involving a white female victim and a black male alleged perpetrator Fr. McGuire plead with the graduates to “ostracize” members of the black community who committed such acts. The suspect in the case did not get a chance to stand trial because he was lynched by an interracial mob.

In 1905 Fr. McGuire resigned his rectorate at St. Thomas. Some historians have suggested that through his friendship with fellow black Episcopal priest Robert Morgan who sought ordination in the Orthodox Church that Fr. McGuire was also interested in seeking ordination in the Orthodox Church. Instead, however, he accepted an offer to serve as Archdeacon for Colored Work in the Episcopal Diocese of Arkansas under the Rt. Rev. William Brown. In three years Fr. McGuire tripled the number of black missions in the diocese but realized that Bishop Brown was intent on segregating black Episcopalians into separate missionary jurisdictions. He resigned his position in Arkansas and established St. Bartholomew’s Church in Cambridge, MA where he served as rector from 1909 to 1911. While at St. Bart’s Fr. McGuire earned a M.D. degree from the Boston College of Physicians and Surgeons. In 1911 the Rev. Dr. McGuire resigned from St. Bart’s and accepted a position as field secretary of the American Church Institute for Negroes (ACIN). ACIN was created by the Episcopal Church to educate African Americans as tradesmen, teachers, businessmen, homemakers, and clergy. Discouraged after two years Fr. McGuire returned to Antigua where he served as rector of St. Paul’s Church, Falmouth from 1913 to 1918. He opened a medical practice and supported the rights of sugarcane workers.

By 1919 Fr. McGuire had returned to the United States, formed the Church of the Good Shepherd (an independent congregation in the Episcopal tradition), and joined with Marcus Garvey who named him chaplain-general of the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League (UNIA). As he travelled on behalf of the UNIA Fr. McGuire organized similar parishes throughout the United States, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Australia and Nova Scotia. In 1921 he held a general convention of these churches and formed the African Orthodox Church (AOC). Fr. McGuire was elected bishop of the AOC and was consecrated by the exarch of the American Catholic Church. Precipitating the “black theology movement” Bishop McGuire gave a speech at the 1924 UNIA convention urging African Americans to worship “a Black Christ” and a “Black Madonna.” Afterwards Bishop McGuire broke with Marcus Garvey and devoted himself to the development of the AOC. Bishop McGuire founded a seminary, an order of deaconesses, and a publication the Negro Churchman. By 1927 Bishop McGuire had been elected patriarch of the AOC under the name Alexander I. He established branches of the AOC in Canada, South Africa, and Uganda and in 1931 he dedicated Holy Cross Pro-Cathedral in New York City. Patriarch McGuire died on November 10, 1934.