What does "owned the covenant" mean in a church record?

+3 votes
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I'm looking at a Congressional Church record in Connecticutt @ Ancestry.  This is a multi-volume set of Connecticutt records and, according to the intro of one volume are from the Congressional Church.  Some of the entries have the initials o.c. and I found a legend at the beginning of this volume saying o.c. means "owned the covenant".  I don't know that that means.  Thank you.
WikiTree profile: Mary Stanley
in Genealogy Help by Lorraine O'Dell G2G6 Mach 6 (66.7k points)

It was a big controversy a few generations after the Puritan Great Migration... non-observant adults who still wanted their children baptized for the social and cultural advantages of church membership at that time. Wikipedia has an explanation of the "half-way covenant" Half-Way Covenant

It is still a distinctive of Presbyterian/Reformed protestant practice to encourage infant baptism, and then during the early to mid-teenage years, profession of faith; ie the child is supposed to "own the covenant" that his or her parents made by bringing their child to the church for baptism in infancy. Some traditions call this Confirmation but that is not always formally practiced as a public ceremony. It might be a simple notation in the church records after a private meeting.

1 Answer

+8 votes

That seems to be a level of membership that is less than being a full member and not (yet?) in full communion with the church. See the article at this link: https://www.firstchurchcambridge.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Owning-Our-History_20190414.pdf

It also has to do with persons wanting to get their children baptized. There were theological discussions as to whether or not children of those who were not full members could get their children baptized.

by George Fulton G2G6 Pilot (738k points)
edited by George Fulton

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