[montgomerygirl]

What cult? What are they into?

[xxemilyxx4011]

i live in ellington and i want to tell you that crystal lake school was AMAZING..the teachers are incredible and this probably doesnt matter, but the small amount of kids that went there all had this pride, and it was like everyone else from center school and windermere knew we crystal lake was amazing...all the bratty kids in our school came from center school, dont ask why...and being at windermere was the worst 2 years of my life...everyone hated it..including the people who had to be there for the full 6 years....i'd go with crystal lake..its really a great school...and i remember many special needs children back in my crystal lake days, especially this one kid, Harrison...i dont think that a special needs kid would have any trouble getting special attention there...plus, there is a cool club at crystal lake called the "elephant" club...its for kids that have parents with drug problems..i was in it, and it was definetly a good time for me...

[powerstroke17]

cult?! thats my family. im a normal kid. i do normal kid things. i dress the same as everyone else.

[Blakesmare]

I must agree with another post which comments on the narrow-mindedness of people whio make judgements based on rumor, not fact. The Swiss community in the Rockville/Ellington area is a dedicated, serious group of people who choose to live a simpler life than the norm. I guess in ways they may resemble the Mennonites. I grew up in Ellington in the 1940's and 50's and attend school with many children of these families.

Most of them at the time had small businesses, such as dairy farms or small construction. They were widely known as honest, dependable, and caring people whom you could always rely on to keep their word and do a full day's work for a full day's pay. I never heard anything, nor witnessed anything unpleasant about any of these people.

They attended the church on Orchard Street, just down from my home, all day on Sunday. They wore simple clothes, the women did not wear make up, and the only jewelry they wore were their wedding bands and watches.

In all my years in Ellington, I never heard of any of these children getting into any kind of mischief. EVER! They prefer to marry within the community.

So, I guess, if you consider kind, honest, simple people who obey the laws and live a simple life a cult, so be it. I wish there were more like them!

[KrisK1978]

Well I know many of the people that go to the Apostolic Church in Ellington where I was born and raised. They are some of the nicest, kind hearted people I know. God is working through them and that is all there is to it.

[ryanthegoldengod]

Ellington is my hometown. (Also from Woodside Acres!).

First, to the person who said Center and Windermere kids were jealous of Crystal Lake kids. As if! I went to Center and don't recall anyone wishing we went to Crystal Lake.

And yes, I would not call the Swiss a cult, but they are rather conservative Christians. If memory serves, when girls join the church they are no longer allowed to wear makeup, for example. So the comparison with the Amish doesn't seem that far off. But as others said, they are perfectly nice people.

And the town itself is quite nice if you want quiet and rural. And you even get used to the smell! Downside? At least when I was growing up in the 70's--90's, it was not the most diverse town by a long shot and there was definitely a certain element of, shall we say, provincialism among some locals. There are plenty progressive minded folks but you will see plenty of confederate flags too. But I guess that's not very different form most small towns--especially ones built on farming.

[cynthialwright2]

It is a church. Who asks Catholics, Protestants, Buddhists to defend their services?

I may be inclined to ask questions. I would never assail them with attacks on their faith or parishioners.

When my first child was born, I took her to this Ellington church, to rejoice with loving people. I had been raised Catholic. I prefer the church in Ellington. I'm thrilled to have returned to eastern Connecticut to have the opportunity to return to this church.

[basehead617]

I don’t know why people keep finding this post and choosing to post in it about this church, but I just looked up the sect for the hell of it:

The Apostolic Christian Church (ACC) is a worldwide Christian denomination in the Anabaptist tradition.[1] Its theology is Arminian.[1] The Apostolic Christian Church practices credobaptism, closed communion, greeting other believers with a Holy Kiss, a capella worship in some branches (in others, singing is with piano), and the veiling of women during services.[1] The Apostolic Christian Church only ordains men, who are authorized to administer baptism, the Lord's Supper, and the laying on of hands. Not every Apostolic Christian Church practices the veiling of women; however, it is seen in most.[1]

[tmaclay1080]

There is a cult like religious group in Ellington, CT. They aren't allowed to to watch TV or listen to the radio, but they can use the Internet from what I know of one person who got sucked into the cult. It's sort of like the Amish, but they drive cars.
I can't believe there are people from Ellington here who have never seen this. The women wear very plain dresses and wear a little whit doily thing on their hair that has to be in a bun. There's just something very "culty" about them. A large part of the population is part of this group. There are other weird things about this group that I've witnessed, but it's getting late and I'm tired lol.
Take care,
Tara

Originally Posted by Krissyk98

All I know is that from my personal experience with Ellington there were a ton of people in that town that were all dressed in a particular way - females & males and their children were extremely restricted from doing normal children things, sounds like a cult to me.

[ryanthegoldengod]

Originally Posted by tmaclay1080

There is a cult like religious group in Ellington, CT. They aren't allowed to to watch TV or listen to the radio, but they can use the Internet from what I know of one person who got sucked into the cult. It's sort of like the Amish, but they drive cars.
I can't believe there are people from Ellington here who have never seen this. The women wear very plain dresses and wear a little whit doily thing on their hair that has to be in a bun. There's just something very "culty" about them. A large part of the population is part of this group. There are other weird things about this group that I've witnessed, but it's getting late and I'm tired lol.
Take care,
Tara

It's not really a "large" population. And it's not like they go recruiting people. Or at least they never did with me. Maybe I'm like George Costanza on Seinfeld who tried to get a cult to recruit him but they appeared uninterested. "What kind of a snobby cult is this!".

And no one said they hadn't seen them. It's just that they are a non-factor in terms of the town and any decision to move or not move there.

As kids, there were more rumors about Jason Vorhees attacking you than getting sucked into some shadowy cult. There is a large lake in town called Crystal Lake. Get it......Camp Crystal Lake?