1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Halfway Covenant

HALFWAY COVENANT, an expedient adopted in the Congregational churches of New England between 1657 and 1662. Under its terms baptized persons of moral life and orthodox belief might receive the privilege of baptism for their children and other church benefits, without the full enrolment in membership which admitted them to the communion of the Lord’s Supper.

See Congregationalism: American.