PASADENA, Calif. -- Church leaders from 30 denominations agreed Jan. 29 on a proposal to create the broadest alliance of Christians ever formed in the United States, according to The Associated Press.

The group, tentatively called Christian Churches Together in the U.S.A., plans to invite a wide range of national church bodies and agencies to join them in February. According to the plan, the alliance would represent five segments of U.S. Christianity: 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 (NCC), which is the nation's largest ecumenical group, according to the AP. The new alliance could supplant the NCC or radically alter its role in American Christianity.

Fifty-five representatives from various denominations attended the meeting, held at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif.

The Rev. Wesley Granberg-Michaelson, the steering committee chair and chief executive of the Reformed Church in America, called the meeting "a remarkable breakthrough."

"We gathered a wide representation of the Christian churches in the U.S.A. and were able to inspire them into making a deep commitment together," he said.

Granberg-Michaelson said it likely will take two years to move the organization from the planning stage to a formal launch. According to the AP, the most likely obstacle comes from the nation's largest Protestant denomination. The Southern Baptist Convention might be reluctant to join, according to the report, which did not offer any explanation.

The idea of a broad Christian alliance emerged from discussions in 2000 within the National Council. The council is not sponsoring the new unity effort, though its chief executive is participating in it.

The organization plans to gather groups that "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as God and Savior according to the Scriptures" and "worship and serve One God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit."

The proposal being sent to churches and denominations says that, in the early stages, the alliance will exist mostly for common worship, fellowship and dialogue on "commonalities" and "differences." Eventually, it would become more active in "speaking to society with a common voice, whenever possible."

The NCC and rival National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) each have faced organizational woes in recent years, according to the AP.

The NCC includes 36 Protestant and Orthodox denominations with 100,000 local congregations. The NAE represents 51 denominations, 45,000 congregations and 250 interchurch agencies.