Eastern Orthodox, Catholic, Anglican, and evangelical leaders stood together Friday to release the Manhattan Declaration, a statement of Christian convictions on the matters of life, family, and religious liberty.

Chuck Colson, head of Prison Fellowship and one of the initiators of the declaration, told me after document’s release, “I can’t find any other case, in modern times at least, when you’ve had such a representation.” Upon its release, the declaration had 148 signatories including pastors, professors, bishops, economists, and nonprofit leaders. WORLD’s founder Joel Belz and editor in chief Marvin Olasky are both signatories. By late afternoon, 1,600 had signed on the declaration’s website.

The timing of the release before the Senate vote on healthcare Saturday, according to Colson, was a “coincidence.” Members of the coalition said the document reflected an “urgency” the global church feels about certain issues.

The preamble to the declaration reads, “While the whole scope of Christian moral concern, including a special concern for the poor and vulnerable, claims our attention, we are especially troubled that in our nation today the lives of the unborn, the disabled, and the elderly are severely threatened; that the institution of marriage, already buffeted by promiscuity, infidelity and divorce, is in jeopardy of being redefined to accommodate fashionable ideologies; that freedom of religion and the rights of conscience are gravely jeopardized by those who would use the instruments of coercion to compel persons of faith to compromise their deepest convictions.”

A brain trust of Christians hatched the idea about a year ago, meeting together in the Metropolitan Club in Manhattan—thus, the name. Robert George, jurisprudence professor at Princeton University and noted Catholic scholar, wrote a draft, then fielded edits from about 50 contributors before rewriting and polishing the declaration into its published form.

Signers included Christian leaders like Tim Keller, J.I. Packer, and Cardinal Justin Rigali, as well as leaders of organizations like Focus on the Family, the National Association of Evangelicals, and Evangelicals for Social Action.

The principles, Rigali noted, “are not the unique preserve of the Christian community—they can be known and honored by people apart from divine revelation.” Father Robert Sirico of the Acton Institute added that the declaration isn’t emerging from “a penchant for theocracy.”

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