George Alexander McGuire

George Alexander McGuire (28 March 1866 – 10 November 1934) was an Episcopal Priest who became the founder and first Bishop of the African Orthodox Church (AOC) in 1921, envisaged as a home for Blacks of the Protestant Episcopal persuasion who wanted ecclesiastical independence, based on Apostolic tradition and Apostolic succession. He was consecrated a Bishop on September 28, 1921 in Chicago, Illinois by Joseph René Vilatte, a Latin rite Jacobite Bishop known for his activity as a founder of several ecclesial communities.

McGuire was also prominent as Chaplain-General of the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA).

McGuire was from the Caribbean and was born on 28 March 1866 in Swetes, Antigua. He studied in local grammar schools, then at the Antigua branch of Mico College for teachers and at the Moravian Miskey Seminary in the Danish West Indies. From 1888 to 1894 McGuire was pastor of a Moravian Church in the Danish West Indies.

In 1894, McGuire arrived in the United States and initially joined the African Methodist Episcopal Church. On January 2, 1895, however McGuire joined the Episcopal Church and two years later became an ordained priest.

McGuire led small mostly black Episcopal churches in Cincinnati, Richmond, Virginia and Philadelphia. St. Philip’s Episcopal Church of Richmond, Virginia lists a certain "Reverend George Alexander McQuire" as rector from April 1898 to November 1900. Perhaps significantly, just after McGuire's tenure, the Rev. Robert Josias "Raphael" Morgan was listed as the rector there for a short time from "1901-April 1901," indicating that the two men likely knew each other. And Fr. Raphael later became an Orthodox priest in 1907.

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