Hayden Royster's profile photo

Hayden Royster

Oakland

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Huge fan of dying industries: religion journalism, theatre, unconditional love, etc. | Stories @ReligPolitics @californiamag @KQED @Berkeleyside

Articles

  • 1 week ago | berkeleyside.org | Hayden Royster

    On the afternoon of Sept. 30, 2016, Rev. Molly Baskette was running errands in San Francisco when she got a call from her church’s building manager. First Congregational Church of Berkeley, he told her, was on fire. Within minutes, she was racing back to Berkeley’s Southside neighborhood. “As I was driving over the Bay Bridge, I saw the column of smoke coming up where the church was,” Baskette recalled recently.

  • 2 weeks ago | stmarys-ca.edu | Hayden Royster

    Hundreds of graduating seniors, friends, and family gathered for the ceremony in Saint Mary’s Stadium on May 24. The themes of the day were hope, perseverance—and bringing an ethic of community to a world that badly needs it. by Hayden Royster, Office of Marketing & Communications | May 24, 2025 From the moment they entered Saint Mary’s Stadium on May 24, each member of the Class of 2025 told a story all their own.

  • 1 month ago | stmarys-ca.edu | Hayden Royster |Francis Tatem

    Don’t let our serene campus fool you—at Saint Mary’s College, there is always plenty afoot. Just ask any Gael who has attended an electrifying basketball game at the University Credit Union Pavilion, joined a glow-in-the-dark spin class at the Joseph L. Alioto Recreation Center, or belted it out during a karaoke night at the 1928 Pub. While there is always fun to be had on campus, Saint Mary’s also has one of the world’s best backyards: the San Francisco Bay Area.

  • 1 month ago | religionnews.com | Hayden Royster

    SAN FRANCISCO (RNS) — The most popular Easter service in this capital of alternative living occurs not in church but on the sloping lawns of Dolores Park, where thousands show up in their Sunday best — which at the annual Hunky Jesus Contest can mean steampunk bonnets, a life-size Peep suit or, for those competing, elaborate (and usually scanty) Jesus and Mary costumes.

  • Dec 24, 2024 | berkeleyside.org | Hayden Royster

    Editors’ note: This week we’re republishing some of our favorite stories of 2024. This story was first published on Jan. 16. For Janice Myles and her seven siblings, their lives are forever bound up in the life — and death — of their father’s church. The Rev. Leonard L. Hester and his wife, Parthena, founded New Light Baptist Church in 1954, and right from the outset, it was a family endeavor.

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Hayden Royster
Hayden Royster @haydenroyster
12 Feb 25

RT @Pontifex: What is built on the basis of force, and not on the truth about the equal dignity of every human being, begins badly and will…

Hayden Royster
Hayden Royster @haydenroyster
27 Jan 25

RT @adam_piron: an alternate history where László Tóth arrives in LA instead of NY https://t.co/oJtf2qes5x

Hayden Royster
Hayden Royster @haydenroyster
2 Dec 24

This may be my last self-promoting post here (sorry, new bot followers!), but I wanted to share my latest religion story for @berkeleyside. It was an honor to report on the history—and potential future—of South Berkeley Community Church. https://t.co/DYVgdIZbUk