Half-Way Covenant

Half-Way Covenant,
doctrinal revision of New England Congregationalism, drafted by Richard Mather and approved by a church synod (1662). First-generation Congregationalists were admitted to full membership in the church only after a personal experience of conversion, but their children shared in the privileges of full membership except for the Lord's Supper. The Half-Way Covenant proposed to extend this same status of baptism to the children of second-generation members, even though the latter may have confessed no experience of conversion to bring them into full communion.