HALF-WAY COVENANT

religious-political solution adopted by 17th-century New England Puritans that allowed the children of baptized but unconverted church members to be baptized and thus become church members and have political rights. Early Puritans had become members of the church after they could report an experience of conversion. Their children were baptized as infants, but before these children were admitted to full membership in the church and permitted to partake of the Lord's Supper, they were expected to also give evidence of a conversion experience. Many never reported a conversion experience, but as adults were considered church members because they had been baptized, although they were not admitted to the Lord's Supper. They were only half-way in the covenant of the church. Whether the children of these baptized, but unconverted, church members should be accepted for Baptism became a matter of controversy. In 1657 a ministerial convention suggested that such children should be accepted for Baptism and church membership, and in 1662 a synod of the churches accepted the Half-Way Covenant. This step increased the diminishing minority of church members in the colonies, the only ones accepted as voters and officeholders. This solution continued into the 18th century, when it was again accepted that church membership could only be given to convinced believers.