The Christian Science Board of Directors on Thursday announced the election of Christa Case Bryant as the next editor of The Christian Science Monitor.
The current editor, Mark Sappenfield, is stepping back from the position, having decided to extend his stay in Berlin, where he and his family have been living since August 2023. He will continue to work for the Monitor in a senior role.
Ms. Bryant’s love of the Monitor and its high standards has been honed through a broad portfolio of assignments at the paper, from helping to guide the CSMonitor.com website during the Monitor’s transition to a web-first publication to Jerusalem bureau chief to senior congressional correspondent. While covering Congress, Ms. Bryant won two major awards for political journalism: the National Press Foundation’s Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress in 2022 and the 2023 Sigma Delta Chi Award for Washington Correspondence. She is also an alumna of the Nieman Fellowship for Journalism at Harvard University.
“Christa is the very best of everything that makes the Monitor unique – a deep commitment to fairness, a sense that good journalism can unite instead of divide, and a wonderful understanding of the Monitor’s connection to Christian Science,” says Mr. Sappenfield.
In recognizing Mr. Sappenfield’s eight years as editor, the Board of Directors wrote in a letter to staff and church members: “We are very grateful for Mark’s editorial direction of the Monitor over the past eight years and his continuing commitment to the Monitor’s work.”
As editor, Mr. Sappenfield has helped to develop and produce the Monitor’s “values projects,” including The Respect Project, Finding Resilience, and Rebuilding Trust.
The exact date of the transition has not yet been fixed but is expected to be in the first few months of next year. Mr. Sappenfield will remain the editor until that date. Ms. Bryant will be the second woman in the position.