The Strattons: On a mission to banish Satan from the financial temples of Wall Street
From NY Times [Thanks Joanna]
Dan and Ann Stratton are a Wall Street power couple, even if Wall Street doesn’t know it. Dan is a tall, blond, muscular Minnesota boy turned Yale football star who, by the time he was 30, had parlayed his college connections into a small fortune as a commodities trader. Today, at 47, he is the founder and pastor of Faith Exchange Fellowship, a fundamentalist Christian congregation in Manhattan’s financial district. He is also a “five-fold minister” of Yahweh, a self-described evangelist, apostle and prophet, and spiritual warrior king. Ann is a North Jersey Catholic schoolgirl turned born-again miracle worker, a lithe beauty with deeply sympathetic eyes and a sexy wardrobe -- Carmela Soprano endowed with Protestant superpowers -- whose prayers once supposedly raised a German au pair from the dead on the street in front of the Blue Moon Mexican Cafe in Englewood, N.J.ogether they are on a mission to banish Satan from the financial temples of Wall Street and transform New York City into “ChristTown.” But first they have to find a decent piece of downtown real estate.
Usually, Faith Exchange Fellowship holds its Sunday services in a ballroom at the Marriott Financial Center Downtown Hotel on West Street, at least for the past five years, since they lost their permanent home on 9/11. The most recent Sunday I was there, a congregation of about 400 had gathered. They stood for half an hour before the service began, clapping and dancing to gospel tunes. The singing was led by Carolyn Miller, who once toured in a national company of “The Wiz,” and a small choir that includes professionals who perform in clubs and shows around New York. The band featured Billy (Spaceman) Patterson, a local guitar legend who has played with Miles Davis and James Brown and whose current night job was musical director of Melvin Van Peebles’s raunchy off-Broadway musical, “Ain’t Supposed to Die a Natural Death.” READ IT ALL
Bill McCartney
