This year marks the 150th anniversary of the Covenant of 1871. Let’s look briefly at its history.

For much of Reformed Presbyterian history, the concept of “covenant renovation” was one of our practical distinctives. In such an event, members together swore their belief in the “descending obligations” (continued binding nature) of the 17th Century Scottish covenants and their continued adherence to them.

The Scottish church renewed the covenants in 1712 and 1745, and, until the 1820s, their terms of communion (analogous to our covenant of communicant membership today) included a statement specifically acknowledging the appropriateness of the 1712 event. Early RP settlers in Pennsylvania also renewed the covenants in 1743.

The Reformed Presbytery in North America disappeared late in the American Revolution and wasn’t reestablished until 1798. Just four years later, the presbytery began exploring covenant renovation.

Because of the close relationship between the text of the covenants and the British political system, simple renovation was not considered; instead, each minister was assigned to write a portion of a new covenant that would contain the spirit of the Scottish covenants.

Nothing happened, and attempts over the next several years were equally unsuccessful; so in 1828 Synod decided that there was no need for a new one. A quarter-century later, a new covenant was written, and Synod planned to adopt it in 1856. However, Synod ultimately gave up on the plan, and covenant renovation had to wait until after the Civil War. The final form of the new covenant was adopted in 1870.

Covenant renovation was held on Saturday, May 27, 1871, on the fourth day of Synod’s meeting at the Pittsburgh church on Eighth Street downtown. Because membership was so heavily concentrated in the area—the Pittsburgh, Allegheny, and Central Allegheny churches were within a mile of each other and had almost 600 communicant members—Synod invited all members to participate in a special communion service the next day. Following Synod, copies of the covenant were printed and circulated among all RPCNA congregations so that ordinary members could sign it.

A whole book of covenant-related documents was published in 1872. When a new RP Seminary building was constructed a few years later, it was known as the Memorial Building. In the late 1970s, we concluded that the “descending obligations” concept was extrabiblical, but the Covenant of 1871 remains in our church constitution’s historical section.