John Kline Homestead closes in on goal to purchase property.

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 has not yet been set by Park View Federal Credit Union of Harrisonburg, Va., for closing on the property, 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.

Source: 12/15/2010 Newsline