Mission Yearbook: Documentary ‘Evicting the American Dream’ is now streaming on Amazon Prime

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"Evicting the American Dream" has already been shown in several communities across the country. It's now available for streaming on Amazon Prime. (Contributed photo)

“Evicting the American Dream” is now available to stream on Amazon Prime. The documentary, produced by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Counter Stories Productions, presents the stories of children and families confronting eviction and homelessness, exploring the root causes and systemic issues that perpetuate this epidemic.

“Amazon Prime has the potential to reach over 200 million worldwide, and this is just an incredible platform and opportunity to amplify these voices and Counter Stories to a wider audience of millions,” said David Barnhart, director of the documentary and associate for Story Ministry for Presbyterian Disaster Assistance.

Dr. Katherine Rowell, co-producer of the film and a retired sociology professor at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio, addressed some of the current challenges around housing in the United States. “We continue to see racial disparity in housing affordability and eviction rates,” Rowell said. “The issue of housing affordability remains at the heart of the American Dream, and increasingly that dream is becoming a nightmare for many families.”

Rowell developed a documentary resource guide to the film available to download with additional resources about eviction and homelessness as a way to raise awareness and encourage education and dialogue around this topic. “It is hoped that communities will add their own resources and questions to guide these conversations and call for action in their communities,” Rowell said.

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Listen to staff from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) talk about “Evicting the American Dream” here.

“Evicting the American Dream” joins other Counter Stories Productions documentaries available for streaming, including “Trigger: The Ripple Effect of Gun Violence” and “Flint: The Poisoning of an American City.” 

Barnhart also highlighted the importance of generating national conversations and engagement around root causes, noting that “Flint: The Poisoning of an American City” recently reached the “15 million Streaming Milestone” across all streaming platforms worldwide. “This level of outreach is incredibly important as we all work together in these movements for justice,” Barnhart said.

Since its premiere last March, “Evicting the American Dream” has been screened in places across the United States, including Kentucky, Ohio, Georgia, Washington, D.C., North Carolina, Illinois and California. Screenings are accompanied by panel discussions and brainstorming sessions with local leaders, organizations and faith groups addressing eviction and homelessness.

See some of the responses from partners and collaborators here.

Alongside the screening campaign for “Evicting the American Dream,” Counter Stories Productions is in the production phase for a documentary about gun violence prevention and another one focused on environmental racism. 

More information about Counter Stories Productions and its film resources can be found here or here. 

Michelle Muñiz, Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Andrew Browne, Executive Vice President, Engagement & Church Relations, The Board of Pensions
Laura Bryan, Manager, Financial Aid for Service, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

God of shelter and mercy, be near to those who are losing homes or fearing what comes next. Stir compassion and wisdom in leaders so that justice and care may prevail. Amen 

Living into Right Relations: March 2026

Reconciliation and Indigenous Justice News from The United Church of Canada A Call to the Church: Mobilize for Moosehide This May!  [Image credit: Moosehide Campaign Day]   Mother God, Beloved Christ and Sister Spirit,  May this moose hide  remind me of my commitment  to create and live in a society where Indigenous women, girls, and 2S-LGBTQIA+ people experience  the freedom to flourish within a healthy society that respects, values and cherishes the human rights and dignity of all people.  May I join with others to be a part of your healing and restoration.  Amen  This prayer, offered by the Rev. Dr. Alydia Smith, is a call to all in The United Church of Canada to participate in the Moosehide Campaign Day on Thursday, May 14!  Canada is in the midst of an ongoing national crisis of violence against Indigenous women, girls, and 2S-LGBTQIA+ people. Canada has a long legacy of devaluing Indigenous peoples—in particular Indigenous women, girls, and 2S-LGBTQIA+ people.  Many believe that they do not matter, and that it is acceptable to commit acts of violence upon them. Indigenous peoples lack the legal protection that others receive. This is racism.   The Moosehide Campaign is a call to all people in Canada to take a stand against racism and for justice. This year we are hoping for a record United Church turn-out at the virtual events, local walks to end violence, and fasts to end violence.   National events include a sunrise ceremony, educational plenary, and workshops (all available via livestream), as well as the Moosehide Day Rally on the grounds of the Ontario legislature at Queen’s Park in Toronto from noon to 1:30 p.m.. You can register for virtual events (including livestream links to all the national campaign day events).   Local marches are being organized across the country. Find your local march on the map, or register to become a community steward and organize your own events.  We are calling on United Church members, friends, and communities of faith to take a stance against racism and for justice. If you are in Southern Ontario (or beyond!), come to Toronto and join us for the rally! If you are elsewhere across the country, join in local marches or organize your own!  Stay tuned to this newsletter, the Indigenous Ministries Facebook page and United Church social media for updates!  Facebook Website Email Instagram YouTube Donate to The United Church of Canada and help fund life changing work around the world!

Copyright © 2026 The United Church of Canada, All rights reserved.

Mission Yearbook: North Carolina town marks one year since Hurricane Helene with day of hope and healing

Boone, North Carolina, recently observed the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Helene’s impact in Western North Carolina with Hope After Helene, a day that included music, poetry, connection and reflection.

Participants in the day included representatives of the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance National Response Team, the Appalachian State University Presbyterian Episcopal Campus Ministry, and musician and speaker David LaMotte, who delivered a keynote address and an event-closing concert. 

Watch: Western North Carolina Reflects on the Anniversary of Hurricane Helene

Jackie Henry, who was part of the Hope for Helene steering committee, shared why the event was an important aspect of the region’s recovery. “As a psychologist, I know that whether it’s individual trauma or collective disaster response, the single strongest predictor of recovery isn’t the severity of what happened to us — it’s the quality of support we receive afterward. Social connection literally rewires our traumatized brains, helping us move from hypervigilance back to trust, from isolation back to belonging.”

“After Helene, our trauma was met with an outpouring of love and support that transcended political and social divides and honored our shared humanity. The Hope After Helene events rose organically from that very same spirit of generosity — a community choosing to heal together.”

View images from Hope After Helene

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Analise Brown, Registrar & Administrative Assistant, Office of Presbyterian Youth and Triennium, Interim Unified Agency
Joey Brown, Associate, Direct Mail and PILLARS, Administrative Services Group, A Corporation       

Let us pray:

God of comfort and renewal, we remember those who were affected by the storms and the long road of recovery that followed. We give thanks for communities that come together in compassion, support and shared hope. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Mission Yearbook: Author of book on Seven Mountains Mandate has a sober view of nation’s possible future

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Matthew Boedy

Author and scholar Matthew Boedy, whose “The Seven Mountains Mandate: Exposing the Dangerous Plan to Christianize America and Destroy Democracy” was recently published  by Westminster John Knox Press, was a recent guest on “A Matter of Faith: A Presby Podcast.” Listen to Boedy’s conversation with hosts the Rev. Lee Catoe and Simon Doong here.

Boedy called the Seven Mountains Mandate movement “a movement within Christian nationalism dedicated to Christianizing the seven cultural institutions or arenas or spheres in the United States” — education, family, business, government/military, religion, media, and arts and entertainment.

The idea is to have Christians in leadership within each sphere, Boedy said, or “what might be described as a Christian consensus within those areas … so these areas should not only be run by Christians, but have a Christian culture attached to them.”

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Westminster John Knox Press published Matthew Boedy's "The Seven Mountains Mandate."

The movement began in the charismatic branch of white evangelicalism in the 1970s, Boedy said. “What they’re attempting to do is take their idea of Christianity and force it on other people and other parts of the nation,” he said. The movement wants to take back each of the mountains, which it suggests “is controlled by a secular force or a demonic force.”

He said the heir to the Seven Mountains Movement is Turning Point USA, which started out as a political organization and is now a religious organization as well. Progressive Christians and churches and their leaders can respond to this movement by further promoting their ideas on religious pluralism as well as democracy.

“I think the response needs to be not just a religious response, although that is important,” he said. “We need to make a larger network of people who will promote democracy against those who won’t.”

Many members of churches in mainline denominations aren’t well-versed about this movement, Catoe said. “We talk about Christian nationalism in broad terms, but we don’t know exactly what’s happening,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t take things that are considered Satanic or demonic as being real in progressive circles.”

Boedy noted that “the kind of spiritual warfare the Seven Mountains Movement people operate with is not an individual one.” In his letter to the church in Ephesus, he noted that Paul urges individuals to “put on the whole armor of God.”

“It was about individually blocking Satan’s attacks on your mind,” Boedy said of Paul’s letter. Movement supporters “want to take those individual verses and extrapolate it to institutional areas.”

Among Mountain of Education strategies, movement supporters turn to the use of vouchers to take public money and use it to attend private schools. Many also work to populate their local school board with those who support such aims.

With the Mountain of Religion, the belief is either that certain denominations have been overtaken by Satan “or they’re not preaching the real gospel or getting good discipleship,” Boedy said. “What the Seven Mountains Mandate has in mind is they want to push the church to purify itself and get better discipleship. That may sound good, but they also suggest you should leave the churches that are never going to be good enough. … It’s a movement to take the battle to Satan. They are taking the spiritual battle fight to the enemy.”

“They want very much to Christianize the public school system,” he said, including placing the Ten Commandments in classrooms, banning some books and implementing President Donald Trump’s 1776 Commission “to bring Christianity as the consensus to public schools,” as Boedy put it. “You can see they want to bring back a very specific Christianized version of American history so they can change what we’re taught in the future.”

“That’s very important for the Mountain of Education,” he said. “Once you start educating people differently in grades K-12, that affects their lives from here on out.”

“We may have to go through some very bad times … to restore some sort of spirit of cooperation and faith in our society,” Boedy said. “It may take the coalescing of odd groups to restore our faith in government.”

“I think that change can come from religious leaders,” he said, “the people who know how to build unity and build faith, whether in God or in government.”

Mike Ferguson, Editor, Presbyterian News Service (Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Kendra Bright, Operations and Accounting Associate, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
McKenna Britton, Communications Associate, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

God of truth and peace, strengthen your people to bear witness to love, justice and compassion, so that faith may be a force for healing rather than harm. Amen. 

Minute for Mission: World Water Day

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Snow Robins Trees (provided)

As I write, the winter snow is melting after a long time on the ground, unusual for Kentucky. This melting snow has brought more people outdoors, the birds are twittering in delight for easier quenching of their thirst, and plants that will soon bud are getting good moisture for their roots.

Water can bring nourishment and joy in all its forms. That first snow is fun as it hushes human activity, covers the earth in a beautiful blanket, gives some seeds the winter scarification needed for germination, and can be a novel and thrilling scene of play for family dogs. As it melts, running water begins to bring new life to streams, ponds, fountains, aquifers and all the animals that depend on them — including us! Meanwhile, the sound, sight, and feel of water is therapeutic and spiritually enriching. Even water vapor and its related humidity enable better breathing, smoother skin and other natural processes necessary for life to thrive.

Mindful of the ways that water can be life-giving, it’s just as important to pay attention to the lack of water, and the destructive force of water, in other places. Water can be dangerous and its impacts sobering. In recent years there’s been a rise in droughts, hurricanes, and floods, all of which have done great damage to human communities and natural systems. Recovery is still ongoing in places of water-related natural disasters, and farmers around the world pray for rain — and in the right amount, as otherwise crops may fail and lead to human hunger. 

God calls us to stand with those who suffer from the impacts of too much or too little water, even as we honor the gift of it when it comes as a blessing.

Rev. Rebecca Barnes, Manager, Presbyterian Hunger Program, Interim Unified Agency

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:

Dan Braden, Managing Editor, Publishing, Presbyterian Publishing Corporation
Tara Brannigan, Financial Administrative Assistant, Stony Point Center, Interim Unified Agency

Let us pray:

Dear God, we give you thanks for all the gifts of your creation. You grant us life and help us to experience joy. You stand with us when any in your creation thirst or suffer. As we observe World Water Day, may we continue to find ways to share water resources equitably and to stand with communities suffering from water-related disasters, even as we celebrate the gift of water.

Mission Yearbook: Young adult advocates hold vigil at Michigan State Capitol in solidarity with immigrants and refugees

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Leaders and people attending the Young Adult Advocacy Conference gathered on the steps of the Capitol in Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Alex Simon)

Standing on the steps of the Michigan State Capitol, Isabella Shutt prayed passionately for God to be with immigrants and refugees who are under heightened scrutiny by U.S. authorities.

After asking God to be with the attendees and “all who wander,” Shutt prayed: “Lord, you know the names on my heart today, but there are so many unnamed. There are so many people who are part of Jesus’ story that we don't know, and we remember them as we remember all who are in fear” due to enforcement actions. “May we be witnesses to your love.” 

Shutt, a former summer fellow for the Presbyterian Office of Public Witness, was one of about 30 people who took part in a silent march and brief vigil on the final day of the Jesus and Justice Young Adult Advocacy Conference in Lansing, Michigan.

The social justice action served as an opportunity to stand in solidarity with immigrants and refugees amid increased immigration enforcement and to speak out against the violence targeting immigrant communities.

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The Rev. Jihyun Oh thanks the young people who gathered for the Jesus and Justice conference at First Presbyterian Church of Lansing, Michigan. (Photo by Alex Simon)

The federal crackdown has included sending National Guard troops to Los Angeles; deporting people to dangerous and sometimes unfamiliar countries; restricting due process; conducting massive workplace raids; enacting travel bans; and confounding people’s efforts to receive permanent legal status or maintain work permits, and to live without fear.

In brief remarks at the Capitol steps, the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins, advocacy director of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), spoke about the importance of not remaining silent about hurtful policies and practices, such as targeting people because they have a particular skin color or language.

“Church, this is wrong and we stand opposed to it,” said Hawkins, adding, “We have been called to do what we do, as ministers, as elders, as deacons, as choir members, as those who work in the kitchen, as those who sweep the floor, as those who have a strand of Christian dignity, to say that this is not of God.” 

Prior to the march and vigil, OPW’s the Rev. Christina Cosby led a time of prayer and reflection at the First Presbyterian Church of Lansing that included visiting stations of the cross and a send-off by the Rev. Jihyun Oh, who expressed her gratitude to those gathered, who included some church members as well as some conference participants. Witnessing and advocating in different places where justice needs to happen is part of “the sheer goodness that we can do together,” said Oh, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the PC(USA) and executive director of the Interim Unified Agency.

Along with remarks, hymns, Scripture, singing and prayers, participants were given the opportunity to place flowers on the steps.

The flowers served as symbols of compassion and love and as connectors to prayer vigils around the country being led by grandmothers, mothers and aunties seeking the return of their disappeared loved ones, said Amanda Craft, manager for Immigration Advocacy in the Interim Unified Agency.

“We stand here today and remember siblings,” she said. “The siblings who have been kidnapped, the siblings who have been disappeared, the siblings who have been taken violently, the siblings who have been stripped from their families, the siblings who have been deprived of their legal, civil and human rights, the siblings who have been sent to countries they have no ties to,  the siblings who live in constant fear.”

In an interview with the Presbyterian News Service after the vigil, Shutt explained why advocating for immigrants and refugees is important to her.

“The question of immigration is the question of what do we want our community to look like moving forward and who are the people that we want to be surrounded by?” Shutt said. “For a lot of us, including myself, immigrants have been formative and have loved me into being, as Mr. Rogers says, and so making sure that’s a possibility for future generations is really important to me.” 

Darla Carter, Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Click here to read original PNS Story)

Let us join in prayer for:

Shonita Bossier, VP, Operations, Presbyterian Foundation
Terri Bowman, Customer Service Lead, Hubbard Press, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation)                              

Let us pray:

God of compassion, you see every person who lives in fear, every family separated, and every heart longing for safety and belonging. Be present with immigrants, refugees and all who feel vulnerable in this moment. Amen.

Minute for Mission: Mr. Rogers Day

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Last month, Lady Gaga sang Mr. Rogers’ “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?” as part of a Super Bowl ad featuring neighbors of all ages supporting one another — after a storm, during a move and when a dog was lost. It ended with children riding their bikes down the street and the tagline: “America could use a neighbor just like you.” It was heartwarming, but also heartbreaking, as we witness so many unneighborly actions across our communities, our country and our world. And so, on this day, we lift up the life and ministry of Fred Rogers and are reminded of God’s call to love our neighbor.

Fred Rogers was a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) pastor whose work was recognized as a validated ministry. He is a notable public figure whose lifelong commitment to peace and reconciliation is worth remembering. Rogers was also a pioneer in media literacy, inclusiveness, Christian education and the spiritual formation of young children. March 20 marks his birthday, a fitting time to highlight his enduring legacy.

We live in a world filled with personal, community, and global conflict, where it can sometimes be difficult to cope or remain hopeful. Fred Rogers’ peacemaking sensibilities — both on and off camera — continue to inform our lives today. He practiced deep listening, deep thinking and deep understanding. He modeled the building of neighborhoods rooted in compassion and peace through the Neighborhood of Make-Believe on his television program, through his testimony before Congress, and through curriculum such as Peacemaking in the Family: Four Intergenerational Events, originally written with the Presbyterian Peacemaking Program.

Author Michael Long, in his book “Peaceful Neighbor: Rediscovering the Countercultural Mister Rogers,” writes: 

“Peace is possible, according to Rogers, first because each of us is equipped with a powerful moral imagination — the ability to see goodness in moments of crisis and danger. As Mister Rogers puts this in his concluding monologue, ‘You see, people can imagine bad things, hurtful things, angry war-like things, but people can also imagine good things, helpful things, happy peaceful things.’ … Peace is possible because we are actors, not passive victims, who can always choose to create the peace we have envisioned.”

May we follow God as Rogers did — choosing peace and building neighborhoods of compassion.

(A wealth of resources to celebrate the legacy of Fred Rogers, engage in peacemaking, and practice neighborliness can be found at pcusa.org/about-pcusa/agencies-entities/interim-unified-agency/ministry-areas/christian-formation/mr-rogers-day-resources. These resources may be used on March 20 or any day throughout the year and include Walking in God’s Path of Peace, an intergenerational worship liturgy; the hymn “Jesus, Teach Us to Be Neighbors”; a coloring page; the Building a Neighborhood Together intergenerational peacemaking project; and Neighboring Sunday activities.)

Miatta Wilson, Mission Associate for Christian Formation, Interim Unified Agency, PC(USA), pcusa.org/formation 

Let us join in prayer for:

PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff:

Vivian Blade, Program Manager, Unification Management Office, Interim Unified Agency
Margaret Boone, Project Manager, Special Offerings, Administrative Services Group (A Corporation)

Let us pray:

Gracious and loving God, come near and be with us today and help us to look for ways to be a neighbor, to share love and to build peace. Come near, and be with those who are hurting in homes, communities and around the world. Come near and be with the peacebuilders and those finding ways to show your love in both difficult and ordinary situations. Amen.