Church in my heart

By Gloria Onyuru

Leadership is not measured only by political office or professional accomplishment. A leader is also one who responds to an inner call, who goes it alone if necessary, and gives from the heart against all odds. Gloria Onyuru is such a leader.

Onyuru and her husband live in Ankara, Turkey, the country's capital and a city of 3.4 million, located in the Central Anatolia region. About 97 percent of Turkey's land mass lies in Asia, the rest is considered part of Europe. Yet in geopolitical terms, Turks tend to align themselves with Europe. Turkey is a secular state with a constitution that guarantees freedom of conscience, religious faith, and opinion. A cultural, commercial, and religious crossroads through many centuries, modern Turkey is 99 percent Muslim, 0.3 percent Christian—and within that 0.3 percent, there is at least one Christian Scientist, Gloria Onyuru.

We asked Onyuru to tell how she's found ways to have Church in her life when there wasn't one nearby.