Newsline: John Kline Homestead closes in on goal to purchase property

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

JOHN KLINE HOMESTEAD CLOSES IN ON GOAL TO PURCHASE PROPERTY

(Dec. 16, 2010) Elgin, IL -- There is "exciting news" coming from the 
John Kline Homestead preservation project, according to leader Paul 
Roth. The project is within $5,000 of raising the $425,000 needed to 
purchase the historic Kline family property by the end of this year.

A John Kline Homestead Preservation Trust was created in 2006 in 
hopes of preserving and eventually being able to purchase the home of 
Elder John Kline, a leader of the Brethren during the Civil War and a 
martyr for peace. The homestead is in Broadway, Va., near Linville 
Creek Church of the Brethren where Roth is pastor.

The date for closing on the property has not yet been set by Park 
View Federal Credit Union of Harrisonburg, Va., Roth said. The 
homestead Board of Directors will plan a celebration event after the 
property has been purchased.

This fall the homestead has hosted a number of events both to 
encourage the raising of funds and to highlight the peacemaking 
witness of Elder John Kline as a key anniversary of the Civil War 
approaches in 2011.

"We just completed our third Candlelight Dinner in the John Kline 
house with 88 guests enjoying a traditional homemade meal and the 
conversations of people who lived in the house sharing their concerns 
about the rumors of war in the fall of 1860," Roth reported. Actors 
played the parts of people who would have lived and worked in the 
house at that time. An actor playing John Kline "read from his Jan. 
1, 1861, diary entry, fearing the impact of secession and war upon 
his family and congregation," Roth said.

More Candlelight Dinners will be offered in 2011. Tentative dates are 
Jan. 21 and 22, Feb. 18 and 19, March 18 and 19, and April 15 and 16. 
Tickets are $40 per plate. Seating is limited to 32. Reservations 
will be received beginning Jan. 3. For more information contact Paul 
Roth at 540-896-5001 or  proth@eagles.bridgewater.edu.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to 
continuing the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out 
its faith in community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist 
and Pietist faith traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace 
Churches. It celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 
123,000 members across the United States and Puerto Rico, and has 
missions and sister churches in Nigeria, Brazil, the Dominican 
Republic, Haiti, and India.

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org