Resolved, That the following message be delivered to Bishops Keller and Donovan, and the Diocese of Arkansas:
We, the members of the Executive Council of the Episcopal Church, meeting this 26th day of February 1981, desire to share with the people of the Diocese of Arkansas the happy sentiments and joyful thanksgiving of that unique festival you have termed a "Kellerbration," and which also seems to us to have overtones of a "Donoventure."
You have been deeply blessed to have had the Rt. Rev. Christoph Keller as your pastor and friend. The Executive Council has been similarly blessed to have him as a colleague, with his rare gifts of thoughtfulness, wisdom, and grace so important to us all as we have sought to carry out the responsibilities assigned to us by the Episcopal Church. It was Christoph Keller who provided so much of the leadership and support for Venture in Mission during the initial difficult days of that successful effort. We turned to him often for advice and counsel and were never disappointed in the response we received. We, like you, will miss his being with us when his term with us is over, and then, like you, we will rejoice that he and his beloved Polly will have those well deserved days of retirement and refreshment.
Now the Rt. Rev. Herbert Alcorn Donovan has come to be your pastor and friend, and he has also shared with us in the responsibilities of the Executive Council. In his brief time with us we came to appreciate his conviction, perceptiveness, candor, energy and droll sense of humor. We trust that you have come to love and trust him and his equally remarkable Mary.
How wisely guided and richly blessed you as a diocesan family have been in the choice of these two outstanding men of God as your bishops. Our thoughts and prayers are with Christoph and Polly, Herbert and Mary, and all of you who live and worship and serve in the Diocese of Arkansas.
May God continue to guide and bless you as you seek ways in which to be faithful to His Will.
