A Detroit bishop who hosted Donald Trump at his church in September is one of six religious leaders selected to take part in Trump's swearing-in ceremony during his inauguration next month.

Bishop Wayne T. Jackson, who leads Great Faith Ministries International in Detroit and preaches a prosperity gospel, will help offer readings and give the benediction at the ceremony, Trump's inaugural committee announced Wednesday.

Also taking part will be Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the Catholic Archbishop of New York, Rev. Franklin Graham, a son of America's most popular preacher, Rev. Billy Graham, Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, Paula White, pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Florida, and Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference.

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Jackson has faced criticism for his prosperity gospel preaching, blessing water and claiming his faith healings can cure disease like cancer. He owns one of Detroit's biggest mansions, a 39,000-square-foot home in Palmer Woods with 10 marble fireplaces that once was owned by the Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit, according to a report in the online magazine Model D.

“Arnold and Tim, if you’d come up, we’re going to give you a nice, beautiful check,” Donald Trump said. He held up an oversize check, the kind they give to people who win golf tournaments. It was for $100,000. In the top-left corner the check said: “The Donald J. Trump Foundation.”

Along the bottom, it had the slogan of Trump’s presidential campaign: “Make America Great Again.”

This was in February.

The beginning of it.

“Arnold and Tim, if you’d come up, we’re going to give you a nice, beautiful check,” Donald Trump said. He held up an oversize check, the kind they give to people who win golf tournaments. It was for $100,000. In the top-left corner the check said: “The Donald J. Trump Foundation.”

Along the bottom, it had the slogan of Trump’s presidential campaign: “Make America Great Again.”

This was in February.

The beginning of it.

The tragedy of prisoners of Auschwitz & their complicated moral dilemmas which today we can hardly comprehend should not be instrumentalized https://t.co/lGYSxQ4a54

— Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) December 28, 2016

Your opinion is important and deserves respectful attention.
However, I disagree, respectfully, with your conclusion here.@AuschwitzMuseum

— Kurt Schlichter (@KurtSchlichter) December 28, 2016

An adorable six-year-old in a pink top reaches up to me, her bright green eyes pleading for a hug. Next to her a slightly older girl, with curly brown hair and laughing dark eyes also reaches up. I lift the first child on to my back and bounce her around for a few moments before gently setting her down again. The games are starting and it is time to get into a circle and pay attention.

I am dressed in a spotty shirt, outsize trousers, stripy socks and a glittery bowler hat. This isn’t my usual working gear, but I am visiting this Greek refugee camp as an undercover clown with The Flying Seagull Project. Hoards of children, some barely older than toddlers, run free around the camp. Their parents have travelled with them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan in the hope of finding a life away from violence and poverty. Now they are stranded in camps in Greece while politicians deliberate on where they can go.

The Flying Seagulls visit this camp every day to provide games, organised play and shows for the children. Ash Perrin, the ringmaster, has seen an improvement in behaviour since they started: “It used to take 15 minutes before you saw their child faces. They came with hard adult faces. Now the minute they see us it’s the vulnerable open child we see. They’re responding well.”

The games are simple and based on sound and movement that is easy to understand without language. “If you need to use words to describe it – give up, you won’t get through,” says Perrin. “We try not to speak too much anyway because there’s something very inclusive about not needing to understand anything to play the game. A circle is a very strong structure. In a circle there’s no start or finish so no one gets to be at the front. It’s a productive shape to use.”

2016 was certainly a bad year. The planet continued to get hotter (spelling doom for future habitants of Earth), natural disasters wreaked havoc all over the world, white nationalists and neo-Nazis stopped hiding on the fringes of society, and Prince, David Bowie, and Carrie Fisher left us way too soon. But before we consider 2016 as being totally bleak, let's pause and remember a few folks who made a bad year better. From smart kids to activists and politicians, here are some of the bright spots.

Sarah McBride: Sarah McBride made history this year when she became the first transgender woman to speak at a major-party convention. "Will we be a nation where there is only one way to love, only one way to look, and only one way to live?" McBride, the national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, asked fellow Democrats gathered to nominate Hillary Clinton. "Or will we be a nation where everyone has the freedom to live openly and equally?" Growing up in Wilmington, Delaware, McBride didn't think she could live authentically as herself while achieving her professional goals in politics. Since coming out in 2012, she's been proving her younger self wrong, breaking down barriers and fighting for transgender rights. As an intern, McBride became one of the first transgender people to work in the White House, and she played an instrumental role in getting transgender rights legislation passed in Delaware. She also made waves this year when a bathroom selfie she took in North Carolina went viral after state lawmakers approved legislation barring transgender people from using the bathroom of their choice.

Mari Copeny: Mari Copeny is better known as Little Miss Flint. In 2014, her hometown's water was poisoned with lead when the city of Flint, Michigan, changed to an improperly treated water supply. It took months to warn Flint residents, and as a result thousands of children in the city tested positive for high levels of lead in their blood. Mari sent a letter to the White House asking President Barack Obama to visit, and Obama responded and visited Flint a few weeks later. Mari’s mother operates a Twitter account for the young girl where she continues to tweet about the ongoing water crisis.

Dinner is done, it took 6 packs of water, so 144 bottles of water #FlintWaterCrisis #ThanksGiving #WaterIsLife

— Little Miss Flint (@LoveMeLuLu22) November 24, 2016

Lindy West: In a year when some of the worst corners of the internet gained new power, Lindy West's accounts of confronting trolls provided badly needed evidence that you can stand up to cyberbullying and win. In her debut novel, Shrill, West describes what fat shaming really means, a perspective that This American Life host Ira Glass and others have noted changed their perspective on the issue. West’s book, which is a New York Times bestseller, is a delightful yet heart-wrenching collection of essays, spanning subjects from sexism in comedy to finding love. A columnist for the Guardian, she has also argued that objectifying men at the Olympics was not a real issue, and she's called on everyone to dispense with verbal contortions and just call white nationalists Nazis. (West spoke to Mother Jones earlier this year about internet trolls, fat shaming, and rape culture.)