Our Mission
At St. Thomas More, as well as all other Progressive Catholic Churches, our mission is simple: to welcome, love and serve all without condition. Our aim is to spread the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ through our words and deeds. We accept people where they are and how they are and invite everyone to the table of the Lord.
Our Patron Saint
“So how do you select a patron Saint for a parish?” To be honest, we don’t know what the tradition might be in other churches, but when the question was asked of us—St. Thomas More came immediately to mind. St. Thomas spent his entire life in London, from birth to death, other than several diplomatic journeys he made at the request of his king. He is our favorite saint for so many reasons. He was a layman, a lawyer, a husband, a father. He was one of the greatest minds of his generation, who educated his daughters in a time when women were considered intellectually inferior to men. More was a Humanist and an author and was noted for his kindness, greatness of heart and above all—he had a wonderful sense of humor.
But Thomas More did not live a completely "saintly" life. He often used his pen as a weapon on which he skewered others savagely who held opposing opinions. He approved the burning of heretics. He was a man who struggled with his own demons all his life, but the God he met in prayer slowly but surely prepared him and transformed him into the Thomas More God had in mind.
More is primarily noted as the saint who stood up to King Henry VIII in the matter of his divorce from Katherine of Aragon and the King’s self-appointed leadership as head of the Church in England. We prefer to see him as a man who believed in the integrity of the individual conscience. He never spoke out about the divorce or the king’s self-promotion, but it was a silence that roared all over England. Once Lord Chancellor of England, Thomas More resigned his position, hoping to be left quietly alone. Instead, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1534 because he would not take the oath of supremacy. Up until the time that they removed his books and writing materials, he wrote devotional, meditative works. He was tried and convicted of treason. True to his conscience he stood firm and forgave his judges telling them that “we may yet hereafter in heaven merrily all meet together to everlasting salvation.” Before he was executed, More said “I die the King’s good servant, but God’s first.”
Thomas More was truly “a man for all seasons.” His journey, his struggles, make him, in our honest opinion, a true model of living a life of faith while fully engrossed in “the world,” an apt patron and protector for our parish.
Our Team
Mother Phyllis McHugh
Pastor
Mother Phyllis was born and raised in Philadelphia—a cradle Roman Catholic. She spent 10
years as a sister of the Holy Family of Nazareth and taught at both the elementary and
secondary levels. Mother received her bachelor’s degree from Holy Family College and after
leaving the convent, continued to work as a teacher. She met and married her husband,
Chris. She is the mother of one son and a very proud grandmother of two boys. Over the
years, Mother Phyllis was heavily involved in lay parish ministry, which led her to study for
a master’s degree at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary. There she majored in Systematic
Theology and minored in Liturgy. After years of soul-searching, Mother left the Roman Catholic
church and became involved in the Independent Catholic movement. She was ordained to the
priesthood in May of 2011.
Fr. Shaun Ake-Little
Associate Pastor
Fr. Shaun was born and raised in Northeastern Pennsylvania as a Roman Catholic having attended Catholic school from Kindergarten to Twelfth grade. He moved to the Philadelphia region to attend LaSalle University where he earned a bachelor’s degree in education. He continued his schooling at Temple University where he earned a doctoral degree in Educational Administration. Although he considered entering the Roman Catholic seminary, he opted to utilize his degrees and to enter the field of education in which he is still presently involved. God's call to the priesthood, however, did not subside and that led him to discover that there are other ways to serve God and still hold true to his Catholic roots. Upon discovering the independent Catholic movement, Fr. Shaun immediately felt at home. He began as the director of religious formation, which he did for several years before entering seminary. He attended Ascension Theological College where he earned a Master of Divinity degree and then was ordained to the priesthood in June 2020. Fr. Shaun currently resides in Ambler, Pennsylvania with his spouse, two cats and two dogs.
Deacon Michael Gabriele
Permanent Deacon
Deacon Michael was born and raised in the Philadelphia region and although raised Roman Catholic, he searched for other faith traditions such as Universalism before coming to the Progressive Catholic Church. He graduated from Bensalem High School and then attended the Pennsylvania State University where he earned his BS in Regional Planning. He also attended Bucks County Community College and earned an AA in Business Data Processing. Deacon Michael served in the US Army Reserves for eight years before being honorably discharged with the rank of CPT. He worked as a computer programmer and applications analyst for twenty-nine and is retired from the Exelon Corporation (PECO). Deacon Michael is married to his wife Peggy and together they have two children. In his spare time, he enjoys biking, fitness training, volunteering as a transportation specialist and blood donor ambassador and is a Living Civil War historian with The Confederation of Union Generals portraying Major General Ambrose E Burnside and Colonel Samuel Carrol.
Our Worship Space
We share worship space with St. Paul’s Episcopal Church which is located at 7809 Old York Road in Elkins Park, PA 19027. The oldest church in the Cheltenham area, and one of the most significant Abolitionist and Civil War historic sites in the Delaware Valley, St. Paul’s was started in 1851 and built in the early 1860s by the generous vision of financier and abolitionist, Jay Cooke. Cooke was called the “Financial Savior of the Union” for his work selling war bonds. Quaker social activist Lucretia Mott was a good friend and a fellow abolitionist. The two reportedly hid escaped slaves at an Underground Railroad Station on the nearby Cooke estate. We are thrilled and proud to call St. Paul’s our spiritual home!
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To learn more about St. Paul's and their rich history, click here.
Our Catholic Community
The Progressive Catholic Church (PCC) is a vibrant Independent Catholic Jurisdiction. Welcoming, accepting, and embracing, we seek to provide a place where all people may come to celebrate the truth of the Gospel as proclaimed through the authentic traditions of our Catholic faith.
The PCC is a member of the International Council of Community Churches and an affiliate of the World Council of the Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. We are represented in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, and Italy.
We are “Progressive” in that we are an inclusive Church, barring no one on the basis of gender and gender affiliation, sexual orientation, and marital status from full participation in every aspect of the Church body including ordination to the priesthood and our religious orders. In every other way, we share all things in common, including valid episcopacy, priesthood, and sacraments with the Roman Catholic Church and hence the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church throughout
the world. Please note that communion with and obedience to the Pope is not the defining source of Validity, Apostolic Succession is.
STATEMENT ON INNER-COMMUNIONS: OPEN TABLE, OPEN HEARTS. “The Progressive Catholic Church, existing as a Member of the Jesus Movement, in Apostolic Succession, recognizes all Christian Churches who profess the Ancient Creedal Faith of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, and acknowledge the True Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist as being in full Communion with us. You are welcome at our table which is the Table of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To learn more about the Progressive Catholic Church, click here.
Our Heritage
St. Thomas More Parish, in addition to all Progressive Catholic Churches, is an independent Catholic Church in the Old Catholic tradition. The terms Old Catholic Church, Old Catholics and Old-Catholic churches designate "any of the groups of Western Christians who believe themselves to maintain in complete loyalty the doctrine and traditions of the undivided church but who separated from the see of Rome after the First Vatican council of 1869–70".
The expression Old Catholic has been used from the 1850s by communions separated from the Roman Catholic Church over certain doctrines, primarily concerned with papal authority and infallibility. Some of these groups, especially in the Netherlands, had already existed long before the term.
Two groups of Old Catholic churches currently exist: the Union of Utrecht (UU) and the Union of Scranton (US).These churches are not in full communion with the Holy See. Member churches of the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches (UU) are in full communion with the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden and the Anglican Communion; many members of the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches hold membership in the World Council of Churches.
Both groups trace their beginning to the 18th century when members of the See of Utrecht refused to obey papal authority and were excommunicated. Later Catholics who disagreed with the Roman Catholic dogma of papal infallibility, as defined by the First Vatican Council (1870), were thereafter without a bishop and joined with the See of Utrecht to form the Union of Utrecht of the Old Catholic Churches. Today, Utrechter Union churches are found chiefly in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic. The Union of Scranton separated from the Utrechter Union in protest over the UU's ordination of women and LGBT Christians.
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To learn more about the Old Catholic Church, click here.
To learn more about Independent Catholicism, click here.
