CHICAGO (Reuters) - A coalition that would for the first time unite the major Christian faiths in the United States is taking years to coalesce, but its organizers say that's a good sign and are not discouraged.One day the group could speak with a single voice on important issues in a country of 296 million where historically three of every four people claim to be Christian or at least identify with that faith.The group, Christian Churches Together in the USA, began in 2001 when more than two dozen church leaders met to find a way to spread the patchwork quilt of U.S. churches on a single table.The Rev. Jeff Farmer, president of Open Bible Churches, an association of evangelical Pentecostal/charismatic churches, said he came away from the California meeting convinced that while the group may not formally exist, "It already does in our minds" and "we're well down the road" to a launch."I see it as huge, a hinge in history," he said in an interview. "It's never before happened on this planet, that such a broad table has gathered."
