Baptism

BAPTISM OF THE EVANGELICAL COVENANT CHURCH

The Evangelical Covenant Church has no formal creed to which it expects all of its members to subscribe other than the acceptance of the Scriptures as the “Word of God and the only perfect rule for faith, doctrine, and conduct.” The Covenant, however, has traditionally valued the historic confessions of the Christian Church particularly the Apostles’ Creed, as useful summaries of the essential message expressed in the Holy Scriptures.

This position of freedom within the limits set by the Scriptures and the central tradition of classical Christianity allows the Covenant to maintain unity within a diversity of secondary biblical doctrinal positions. Prominent among these in its potential for creating disunity and misunderstanding is the doctrine and practice of the sacrament of baptism. While the Evangelical Covenant Church comes out of a tradition in which infant baptism has been the primary understanding and practice, the Covenant chooses to respect the biblical positions of both infant and believer baptism equally.