By Rev. John Fisher
A.M.E. Today Editor

The election of a first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church was on everybody's mind in early July of this year.

It was one of  the main topics of conversation for the General Conference that was held in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Two names were mentioned side-by-side as being the lead candidates for this historic role, the Reverend Vashti McKenzie, pastor of Payne Memorial  A.M.E. Church in Baltimore, Maryland and the Reverend Carolyn E. Tyler Guidry, Presiding Elder of the Los Angeles/Pasadena District of the Southern California Annual Conference of the Fifth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Church.

Articles were written, interviews were done, broadcasts were presented.  Everyone followed these two great ladies of the church as they marched their way diligently towards the call of Episcopal office.

If there had been five available Bishop positions open, rather than the four that history reflects there actually were, we today would be calling Carolyn Tyler Guidry the Right Reverend.

But only four candidates were able to  more forward to this high office. A woman was amongst  this quartet. The women however was not Carolyn E. Tyler Guidry.

She had run a strong race.  And her vote tally was high.  It just was not high enough.  A coalition formed, and it swept its four members into Episcopal office.  Presiding Elder Guidry was left with the next highest vote count remaining on the board.  She had fallen just a little short of her goal.

It was a setback, but one that did not hold Presiding Elder Tyler Guidry down for long.  She not only sprang back from the race she came so close to winning, but she now has declared her intention to run again.

"I am a candidate for Bishop for 2004,"   Elder Tyler Guidry declared in an exclusive interview with A,M,E, Today.  Not only is she running, but she is running with the blessing of her fellow Presiding Elders in the Southern California Conference,  the Reverends Lonnie C. Warmley  and  Howard Gloyd

"They unanimously decided that I would be their candidate for Bishop in 2004," Elder Tyler Guidry  explained.

It was easy to get a sense of  Elder Tyler Guidry during the course of the elongated interview,  She was quick to punctuate a funny story with a deep husky laugh.  She did not place a veneer on the election process but  rather viewed it for what it was, a political function of the church that can raise emotions. And she did not look back with regrets to her close loss for the office of Bishop.  Instead, Elder Tyler Guidry said with time, she could view what happened in Cincinnati as an achievement.,

"My reflection on the election did not come clear  until I read a very good article in Ebony on Bishop Vashti  McKenzie and in the article it said that Rev, Carolyn Tyler Guidry  was unsuccessful in her run

"With that, I got beyond the disappointment and pain of not winning for I knew, in my own heart,  I was not unsuccessful," Elder Tyler Guidry related.

She said she looked back to the fact she had been the first female candidate for Bishop who had garnered enough votes to get the electorate to take them seriously when she ran for Episcopal office in 1996.

"The lead candidate for that election, the now Bishop T. Larry Kirkland, needed votes so I stepped out and gave him my votes.  My aim for 2000 was to elevate a woman to the ranks of Bishops,  and my campaign to do that was successful. While certainly I wanted to be the first, I was not there in Cincinnati to lose, I also felt successful that when I left there was a woman on the bench of Bishops."

It had been a long tough run for Elder Tyler Guidry.  Many openly questioned whether she would want to go through all of that again.

Elder Tyler Guidry, after a little rest and reflection, did not see the rigors of the race that was behind her, instead she still had memories of that electronic tote board, that flashed the election results in front of her.

"I left too many votes on that board in Cincinnati, to walk away," Elder Tyler Guidry said with enthusiasm.

She knew what had thwarted her run for Bishop.  It was the coalition of several good candidates that did her in.  There was strength in numbers and unity.

"By the time we realized there was a coalition," Elder Tyler Guidry explained, "It had been set and done and it was too late for me to do anything about it..

"I realized early on Tuesday morning when I spoke to one of the winning candidates that something had been put into place.  We tried eventually to put together a coalition of our own but  it was too little, too late."

Elder Tyler Guidry said  she acknowledged that many people seemed upset by the excitement and seeming rancor that  went with the election process.  The yelling, the screaming, what seemed to be animosity.  She said it was part of the political process and used it for a life lesson for a first time delegate.

"The young delegate came up to me obviously bothered by the commotion that  occurred at the Conference.  I told her to follow two of the the delegates that were doing the most yelling and screaming at one another. I told her to look at them in the hallway laughing and talking.  They were just trying to get their point across, perhaps in a loud way. She came back to me a little later and said, "Elder, you were right, I just saw them out at lunch together."

Elder Tyler Guidry, who knows her way around a computer, and was one of the early supporters of A.M.E. Today, said technology gave a new feel, and a good feel,  to the General Conference voting process.

"The electronic voting really has leveled the playing field for the candidates and it gives the delegates more of a chance to vote the way they really want to. There were people elected to General Officer slots that people did not expect to get elected," Elder Tyler Guidry said.

She said there still is time to lobby and there is time to debate, but the actual vote proceeds quickly with the results, almost immediate, allowing people to freely vote their minds. And the arguing and debate?

"I guess I have been A.M.E.  long enough to understand that just is part of how it is done," Elder Tyler Guidry said.

She said for 2004, she would remember the lesson taught her about coalitions. but she would only selectively join forces..

"I am who I am, and I would make an alliance with someone who had a strong candidacy if  I could believe in their campaign issues but there are some things I will not do and that is to just make an alliance to make an alliance. Probably one thing I will do is start earlier to raise some money to run a strong race. It takes a lot of travel and there is a lot of expense that comes with  campaigning but I have a lot of supporters who will be there to help me."

One of her prime supporters, and the manager of her last campaign was her son, the Reverend Doctor Timothy Tyler. She said the role he plays in the 2004 election will be his choice.

"My son is a good pastor with a good church. He spent a lot of time on my campaign the last time around.  It will be his choice  for the upcoming campaign," Elder Tyler Guidry said.

Elder Guidry said a lot of good came out of the past General Conference including the fact Africa should have some indigenous leadership when the book is closed on the election of Bishops in 2004.  Elder Tyler Guidry said there often times a lack of communication between the A.M.E. Church on American shores and its brothers and Sisters in Africa.  This lack of communication often leads to disappointment and frustration.

"I believe many people do not realize the ramifications of the resolution that was passed at General Conference in how it relates to the African situation," Elder Tyler Guidry said. "But in 2004, the church in Africa should get what they have been asking for, some indigenous leadership The church has to work out that piece in the next four years, but thankfully it is in place." .

Elder Tyler Guidry said one of her biggest disappointments in not being elected was that she was looking forward to serving in Africa.

"I had been looking forward to going to Africa and putting together a coalition that would help realize some projects that I imagined could be done.  There are such wonderful possibilities of ministry to be done there."

Just the sound of her voice let you know that dream still was alive in Elder Tyler Guidry.  Perhaps it was one of the catalysts that thrust her back into the run for Bishop..

"On the day after the election, I told myself that I was not going to do that to myself again. It was draining  and I was disappointed.

"But as I went away to reflect on what happened, I got all of these phone calls.  People praying for me, people picking me up, telling me "we know you were disappointed but you have to run again you got too close.  We will support you!"

" I prayed on this decision long and hard and finally when the decision was made to run, said "Ok Lord I know what you are telling me to do."

"I will run again in 2004.  I would be proud and honored to bring another female face to the bench of Bishops in 2004.  I do not want the church to stop now that it has elected its first female Bishop.  I want to make sure women are always in the pipeline, eligible and electable.  Ten or 12 years ago, circumstances might have dictated there may not have been as many women as electable but there should be at least another woman on the bench of Bishops after General Conference 2004 and I pray that it is me!"