Broadest U.S. Christian alliance, that includes the Catholic Church, is proposed.

The loosely knit alliance would represent five segments of U.S. Christianity, listed in the plan as "Evangelical/Pentecostal, Historic Protestant, Orthodox, Racial/Ethnic and Roman Catholic."

The Catholic church and most evangelicals and Pentecostals do not belong to the National Council of Churches, which is currently the nation's largest ecumenical group. If the new alliance does emerge, it could supplant the National Council or radically alter its role in American Christianity.