St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church sits on three acres at the southeast corner of Stelling and McClellan Roads in Cupertino, California, directly across from De Anza College. The property was once part of the apricot orchards for which Cupertino was famous, and the apricot remains the church's defining symbol, appearing in its stained glass, its publications, and its social media. Since its first service on January 7, 1962, St. Jude's has grown from a small farmhouse congregation into a parish known for two Sunday worship services, a deep commitment to local and international social justice, and an ambitious plan to put housing for neighbors and clergy on its own campus.
Two Sunday Services, One Community
Sunday morning at St. Jude's offers two distinct worship experiences. At 8:00am, the sanctuary holds a quieter, contemplative service without music. This earlier Eucharist is held in person only and is favored by those who prefer a more reflective setting.
At 10:30am the full community gathers for a livelier, music-rich Eucharist that is both on-campus and livestreamed to YouTube. In the warmer months, the 10:30 service moves outdoors into the shady courtyard, where congregants sit "in the round" around an altar crafted from a slice of the hundred-year-old Coulter Pine that fell on the campus in 2017. Children of all ages are welcome in worship, and the service often includes moments designed especially for them. Coffee, tea, and snacks follow in the parish hall and courtyard, and visitors are warmly invited to stay.
Worship follows the Episcopal Church's liturgical rhythm and the Revised Common Lectionary. Communion is offered with an open table: all are welcome to receive bread and wine, to receive a blessing, or to come forward simply to be present. Gluten-free wafers are always available by asking the priest, and the wine is alcoholic. Those who prefer a blessing may cross their arms across their chest.
The Apricot Window and the Campus
The visual heart of St. Jude's is the Apricot Window on the north wall of the sanctuary. Designed by Boulder Creek artist Virginia Fordice using hand-poured "curious glass" and installed in 1994, the window grew out of the vision of the Rev. Jane Kottmeier, a former priest at St. Jude's who lost her battle with cancer in 1993. Her sister-in-law, graphic artist Tami Needham, created the original design that became the window's central feature: an apricot tree overlaid with a cross, symbolizing both the fruitfulness of God's orchard and the pruning that produces good fruit. The window was rededicated on October 29, 2023, by the clergy of St. Jude's and Bishop Lucinda Ashby of the Diocese of El Camino Real, after repairs to its protective panels and wooden supports.
Around the sanctuary and parish hall, the campus unfolds as a series of connected outdoor spaces. A central courtyard contains a labyrinth for meditation, open from sunrise to sunset. Behind the sanctuary sits the Memorial Garden, where parishioners and their families may be interred. On the other side of the parish hall is the vegetable garden that supplies the parish's outreach ministries. Across the courtyard stand two classroom wings enclosing a gated playground, a bocce ball court, and a pergola. The original Farmhouse, which served as the church's first worship space in 1962, now holds offices. And at the outer edge of the property stands the apricot orchard that gives the church its symbol and continues the agricultural memory of the Santa Clara Valley.
Children and Youth at St. Jude's
Children and teens are central to parish life at St. Jude's. Children are welcomed in the sanctuary at every service, and a small play area with toys sits near the piano for the youngest among them. Joyful noise is explicitly welcomed.
On the first Sunday of each month at 9:15am, the Fireside Room hosts a special Children's Service with its own children's Eucharist, sermon, and music, designed for elementary-age and younger children and their families. On other Sundays, the Godly Play program, based on Montessori principles, is offered for children from PreK through 5th grade. Godly Play uses storytelling and hands-on materials to help children explore their faith through a spiral curriculum. Children and Youth Minister Marion Lynch, who grew up attending St. Jude's and was herself a Godly Play teacher in high school, oversees the program.
Youth in grades 6 through 12 meet on Sunday afternoons at 3:00pm under the guidance of Associate Rector Annalise Deal and Youth Mentors. The group gathers for games, cooking, outings like bowling and ice skating, serving lunch at a local shelter, and running the parish's annual Shrove Tuesday pancake supper and races. Many youth also serve as acolytes in Sunday worship, and confirmation classes are offered periodically. In early 2024, the children and youth planted wheat that grew into the bread used for communion.
Caring for One Another Through Every Stage of Life
Spiritual and caring ministries at St. Jude's are organized around the conviction that parishioners are supported through all stages of life. Baptisms are offered for babies, children, youth, and adults, and confirmations or receptions generally take place every two years. The sanctuary hosts weddings and receptions, with the parish hall available for celebrations, and the Memorial Garden behind the church welcomes the interment of parishioners and their families.
Pastoral care rests with Rector Aaron Klinefelter, with support from Deacon Robin Poppoff and the parish's team of Stephen Ministers. Stephen Ministers provide confidential one-to-one Christian care to anyone going through a difficult time, whether in person, by phone, or by video call. Eucharistic Visitors, lay ministers trained to bring communion to those who cannot attend church, regularly check in with homebound members. Clergy visits and intercessory prayer are also available, with prayer requests shared through the parish's online form.
Helpers across the parish's many ministries are encouraged to consider their particular gifts. St. Jude's 101, a two-hour class led by the Rector, covers the history of the parish, the Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Communion. Training is offered for those wishing to serve as Lay Eucharistic Ministers or Lay Eucharistic Visitors, and the parish also runs confirmation classes when interest calls for them.
Local Outreach: Safe Park, Santa Maria, and a Little Free Pantry
Social justice and outreach are woven deeply into parish identity. St. Jude's identifies, supports, and often gives hands-on help to a roster of local and regional partners.
Twice a year, the campus hosts the Rotating Safe Car Park program, which collaborates with West Valley Community Services and the Winter Faith Collaborative to provide a safe overnight location for people living in their cars. Parishioners sign up through Signup.com to staff morning and evening shifts and to provide meals and pantry items. The local coordinator is Becky Smith.
St. Jude's has supported Santa Maria Urban Ministry in San Jose since SMUM's founding in 1983 by the Rev. Mitzi Ackerman, a former deacon at St. Jude's. The parish contributes money, food and clothing donations, and volunteer hours, including sorting and distributing food at SMUM's pantry. The parish also hosts a Little Free Pantry on its own grounds, stocked by parishioners and available around the clock.
Other local partnerships include Canterbury Bridge at San Jose State University, which supports interfaith students with food, laundry money, school supplies, and emergency funds; the Correctional Institutions Chaplaincy of Santa Clara County, which provides worship, study, counseling, and religious materials to those incarcerated; the San Jose Family Supportive Housing shelter, where St. Jude's cooks and serves dinner on six Saturday evenings each year; and Live Oak Adult Day Services, which the parish hosts on weekdays from 8:00am to 2:00pm and supports financially. The parish's own Urban Farm, started in 2019, produces hundreds of pounds of fresh produce donated to neighbors in need.
Once a year or more, the parish holds a Service Worship Sunday, a single combined service at 10:00am after which parishioners of all ages fan out into the community to live out their baptismal covenant through service projects, including the assembly of "Manna bags" of basic necessities for unhoused neighbors.
International and National Outreach
Beyond the South Bay, St. Jude's maintains long relationships with several overseas partners.
In Palestine, the parish has supported the Four Homes of Mercy for many years. Founded by a Palestinian Christian in 1940 and run entirely by faith, Four Homes is a residence and rehabilitation center serving more than sixty residents of all backgrounds who live with severe neurological, physical, or mental challenges. The home also trains young Palestinian professionals in nursing, physical therapy, occupational therapy, and social work.
In Haiti, the parish has long supported St. Patrick's School, an elementary school in the Central Plateau region, by building classrooms, paying teacher salaries, and providing a lunch program. The parish also funds scholarships through the Society for the Increase of Ministry for candidates studying for theological vocations.
In Mexico, St. Jude's supports Instituto Paz en las Americas, which works to help indigenous communities diversify their economic base. In the United States, the parish has channeled disaster relief through diocesan partners, including aid to eastern Kentucky after devastating floods, and has sent solidarity gifts to a Roman Catholic parish in Puerto Rico home to a large statue of St. Jude after earthquake damage.
The parish's Distributions Committee, open to all parishioners, decides where to allocate the parish's outreach budget locally, nationally, and internationally, with oversight from the Vestry.
Housing on Campus: The Next Chapter
In 2022, St. Jude's launched a Housing Team to explore a transformative project: building both a rectory for clergy housing and affordable rental housing on its own three-acre campus. The idea grew out of a 2020 diocesan initiative encouraging parishes to address community needs, and a 2021 parish survey that identified affordable housing as a top outreach priority. At the same time, the parish recognized that candidates for the rector position had declined to apply because no housing was available, a problem that has only grown as local home prices have continued to climb.
Led by parishioners Judy Foot, Sara Razavi, Ray Ojo, Jen Shearin, Jeffrey Pugh, and JR Fruen, the team is working through a process of Discernment, Feasibility, Design, and, with parish approval, Build. Concept drawings from a hired architect suggest that the campus could accommodate a rectory plus roughly thirty apartments or fifteen to twenty townhouses, while keeping the Sanctuary, Parish Hall, central courtyard, Memorial Garden, and labyrinth untouched. The classroom buildings, over fifty years old and slated for major repair in the coming decade, would be replaced with new classrooms and housing. The apricot orchard would be relocated to the interior of the campus, where it would still be visible from the Sanctuary's Apricot Window.
The Housing Team shares regular updates through Sunday forums, written bulletins, and a dedicated email address at housing@saintjudes.org.
Learning for Every Age
St. Jude's offers a robust lineup of formation opportunities beyond Sunday worship. Sunday Bible Study meets at 5pm over Zoom with clergy, delving into the liturgical readings of the week, with additional Tuesday night and Thursday morning sessions sometimes led by lay ministers. Drop-ins and newcomers are always welcome.
Covenant Groups meet regularly in homes and on Zoom for deeper personal study, prayer, mutual support, and fellowship. The groups discuss scripture, share their spiritual journeys, and build lasting friendships.
Sunday Forums are held at noon in the Sanctuary or Parish Hall, often livestreamed to YouTube, and cover a wide variety of topics relevant to the congregation and the wider community. Past forum recordings are available online. The parish also hosts occasional lecture series and special seminars.
Each spring, the women of St. Jude's gather for a Women's Weekend getaway, fully catered, at a location about an hour from Cupertino. Young Adults meet occasionally for meals, games, documentaries, and discussion. A lending library, organized by topic, sits in the Farmhouse with comfy chairs for browsing. The parish sanctuary is open for prayer 24 hours a day, and the labyrinth is available from sunrise to sunset.
Music and Worship Ministries
Music at St. Jude's ranges from traditional Episcopal hymns to global and contemporary songs, with congregational singing encouraged both in the sanctuary and at home. Minister of Musical Arts Cameron Clendaniel leads the program, supported by the Adult Choir, an organist and pianist, and talented parishioner musicians. The choir sings at the 10:30 service and practices on Thursday evenings. Communion bread is baked by volunteers of all ages for the Eucharist, and gluten-free wafers are always available.
A wide range of worship ministries supports Sunday and seasonal services. Greeters and ushers welcome worshippers and hand out bulletins. Readers read scripture both in person and via recorded video. Acolytes, both teens and adults, carry the cross and assist clergy. Lay Eucharistic Ministers assist at the altar, read scripture, and lead the Prayers of the People. Streaming and sound system volunteers ensure that those watching on YouTube and those using hearing aids through the T-coil hearing loop can fully participate. The Altar Guild prepares the sanctuary for worship, and the Flower Guild decorates it for special services. Communion Bread Bakers of all ages supply the Eucharist each week.
Community Life Across the Year
St. Jude's enjoys a steady rhythm of fellowship events that span the calendar. Coffee Hour follows every Sunday service in the parish hall and courtyard, and is hosted by rotating Coffee Hour Hosts who serve coffee, tea, and snacks. In July and August, summer potlucks under the arbor invite everyone to bring a dish to share, with the parish providing proteins and an array of games, from bocce ball to ping pong.
Special occasions fill out the year: a 4th of July barbecue and talent show; an Easter potluck; St. Jude's Day, celebrated on the Sunday closest to October 28 with a single combined service at 10:00am, a ministry fair, and lunch; an Advent celebration with nativity scene displays and wreath making; a Bike Blessing and Ride for Earth Day; and the annual parish picnic, usually held over Labor Day Weekend at Vasona Park in Los Gatos, with hikes, nature learning, and a great potluck lunch.
Leadership and Governance
The parish is led by Rector Aaron Klinefelter, who joined St. Jude's in June 2020 and was installed on September 20, 2020. A Kentucky native with degrees from Asbury University, Fuller Theological Seminary, and the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, Aaron has served as a youth minister, Christian education director, college campus minister, house church planter, and parish priest. He and his three children, along with their dog Orca, share the life of the parish.
Annalise Deal serves as Associate Rector. A graduate of Boston College and of Church Divinity School of the Pacific, where she also earned an MA in History of Religion from the Graduate Theological Union, Annalise oversees the youth program. Her husband, the Rev. Kevin Deal, serves as vicar at St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco.
Deacon Robin Poppoff, a Mountain View resident with degrees from San Jose State University, Heald College, and the School for Deacons in Berkeley, coordinates the Eucharistic Visitor program and serves on the diocesan Deacons Council.
The Rev. Penelope Duckworth continues to serve as Assisting Priest, and Cameron Clendaniel, Marion Lynch, Kristin Cameron, Donna Araiza, and Steve Swayze round out the staff team.
The Vestry, the elected governing body of the parish, is led by Senior Warden Pam Helmer and Junior Warden Amanda Williams, known at St. Jude's as the People's Warden. Scott Rotondo serves as Treasurer and Louise Marriott as Vestry Clerk. The parish belongs to the Diocese of El Camino Real, led by Bishop Lucinda Ashby, and to the wider Episcopal Church, with the Most Reverend Sean Rowe serving as Presiding Bishop.
Sixty Years and Counting
St. Jude's has been a congregation since January 7, 1962, when a small group gathered for the first service at Cupertino Union Church. The property on McClellan Road, with its farmhouse and apricot orchard, was purchased by the Diocese of California for $88,500, and the first Vicar, the Rev. David Crump, was appointed. The parish grew through the 1960s and 1970s under Vicars Hugh Wright and Bill Clancy, who oversaw the construction of classroom buildings and shaped a parish identity centered on sacrament, outreach, and a commitment to living with minimal facilities.
St. Jude's became a parish in 1972 with the calling of the Rev. Francis McNaul as its first Rector. The Rev. John Buenz shepherded the next thirteen years, including the founding of Santa Maria Urban Ministry. The Rev. Joe Kennedy led the parish from 1987 to 1998 and saw the construction of the Parish Hall and the planting of the Memorial Garden. The Rev. Karen Siegfriedt, the fourth rector, was installed in 1998 and led the parish through a major expansion of outreach and music. After an interim season, the Rev. Wilma Jakobsen became the fifth rector in 2012, overseeing the renovation of the central courtyard and the installation of the labyrinth.
Following the Rev. Aaron Klinefelter's arrival in 2020, the parish has added its hybrid 10:30 livestreamed service, welcomed a new generation of staff and ministry leaders, navigated the pandemic with creativity, and turned its attention to housing as a defining issue of its next decade.
Visiting St. Jude's
St. Jude's is at 20920 McClellan Road, Cupertino, CA 95014. The office is open Monday through Friday from 9am to 5pm, and visitors may reach the parish by phone at (408) 252-4166 or by email at office@saintjudes.org. Parking is available in any designated space on campus; those needing mobility assistance may pull up to the center entrance near the "parking assistance" sign.
The 8:00am Sunday service is contemplative and held in person only. The 10:30am service is livestreamed to YouTube and held in person with music; summer services are outdoors in the courtyard. Coffee, tea, and snacks follow both services, and visitors are warmly welcomed. Children are welcome in worship, and programs are available for PreK through high school. The first Sunday of the month features a special 9:15am Children's Service in the Fireside Room.
For those wishing to follow along from home, the bulletin for each Sunday is posted on the home page, and services are livestreamed on the parish's YouTube channel. Weekly announcements, sent by email and posted online, keep the wider parish informed of upcoming events, forums, and opportunities to serve.
An Inclusive Spiritual Oasis
St. Jude's vision, written into its Mission Covenant, is "to be a spiritual oasis where lives are transformed." Its members covenant to follow Jesus Christ and his Great Commandment to love God with heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love their neighbors as themselves. To that end, they strive to live as disciples in the modern world, focus their energy on social justice and outreach, support one another through every stage of life, hold courageous conversations in safe spaces, deepen welcome across every background, nurture their leaders, and share their abundance joyfully. Whoever a visitor is, and wherever they are on their journey of faith, St. Jude's welcomes them to find their place under the apricot trees.