Jan is a longtime member of Bellevue First United Methodist Church. Her activism was noted as far back as the 1960s when she began working to build low-income housing for single mothers. She joined Church Women United, beginning a lifetime of ecumenical, interracial Christian activism. Jan was one of the founding mothers of the Church of Mary Magdalene. Currently she is involved in Women in Black, a worldwide network of women witnessing against injustice, war, and other forms of violence.
Bill received a Ph.D. in Christian Social Ethics from Boston University. In 1970 he became the long-time head of the Church Council of Greater Seattle where he fostered social activism, ecumenism and the ethics of Jesus. After his retirement in 1990, Dr. Cate helped found the Institute for Ecumenical Theological Studies at Seattle University, realizing a lifelong dream for what he called a "first class theological school" in the Pacific Northwest.
Bill died January 13, 2016.