The Unitarian Church has reaffirmed its faith in the Harvard Divinity School "as a place it can strongly and confidently recommend for men preparing for the Unitarian ministry."

Speaking on Monday to this year's Unitarian graduates from the Divinity School, Frederick May Eliot, president of the American Unitarian Association, said "recent development at the School have given me confidence in the future liberal character of the school which has meant so much in Unitarian denominational history."

In recent years certain Unitarians have rashly asserted that the school has been losing its position as a stronghold of non-orthodox theological education, Eliot said. These critics, he added, may "be comforted by recent development."

The appointment of Nathan Pusey as President in 1953 was given by Eliot as one of the main reasons for his continued confidence in the Divinity School. He called Pusey "a born and bred liberal and a most competent administrator."

Other development favorable to the Unitarian position, Eliot said, were the "new spirit of backing, financial and otherwise, from alumni and the general public"; the appointment of new faculty members "with absolutely first rate minds operating freely"; the appointment of Douglas Horton as the dean.