LET MY PEOPLE IN <i> by Rose Mary Denman (William Morrow: $18.95; 261 pp.)</i>

Rose Mary Denman appeared to be a model minister in the United Methodist Church: the sort who drew people together and made a difference in the community. Her theological views were conservative; in 1984, she supported a church ruling that “no self-avowed, practicing homosexual (will) be accepted as a candidate, ordained into ministry, or appointed by the United Methodist Church.” Soon thereafter, however, her view of herself was turned upside down when she fell in love with another woman and admitted to herself that she was a lesbian.

“Let My People In” is the story of her trial in the Methodist Church, and her struggle to decide on the path she would set for herself as a woman, as a Christian and as a minister. Her search within, through reading of feminist theologians and discussions with family and friends, led her to believe that her public avowal of homosexuality was a correct and truthful position. Furthermore, she came to the conclusion that the adamant opposition of her church was a betrayal and a suppression of the human spirit.

Rather than leave the ministry, she requested an ecclesiastical trial in order to argue for change in church policy. In her statement to the church, she made the accusation: “The Church has consistently shouted from the steeple tops that the ministry is a ministry toward wholeness, yet by its ruling on homosexuality, it encourages, no, it mandates, that those who are gay and lesbian live fragmented lives, lives that negate the living out of God’s gifts of love for one another in a way that includes commitment to and sexual experience with that precious other.”

Denman’s story culminates with her decision to transfer to the Unitarian Universalist Assn., where she could find a congregation and continue her ministry in the way she believed God had in mind for her.