Kelowna, BC

The Kelowna Parzival Group

Contact List

Kelowna Parzival Group (Branch and Study Group): Brigitte Knaack, Ph. 250-764-4710, beknaack@telus.net

School of Spiritual Science: Brigitte Knaack, Ph. 250-764-4710, beknaack@telus.net

Lakeside School: 429 Collett Road, Kelowna, BC, Ph. 250-764-4130, info@lakesideschool.ca

 

Our study group was started in March 1978. On April 25, 1990, the Kelowna Parzival Group celebrated its inauguration as an official Members’ Group of the Anthroposophical Society in Canada.

For many years, members were gathering in the homes of members. In 2002, we started to meet in the faculty room of the Kelowna Waldorf School (now Lakeside School). The study group meets every Tuesday night from 6:30 PM to 8:15 PM.

We always start the evening by reading the verse of the week from Rudolf Steiner’s The Calendar of the Soul in English and German. The reading is followed by a few minutes of silence, after which we share our thoughts on the mood of the verse as it reflects the inner life of the soul in relation to the outer life of nature. Since we use a version of the Calendar that contains seven different English translations, we often reflect on the different renderings and the translators’ attempts to mirror different aspects of the German original. This conversation sets the mood for the evening and is followed by our study of the chosen book or lecture.

Questions and conversations are the lifeblood of our study. Exploring the texts together, step by step and from different angles, gives us the experience of a co-creative effort in arriving at a level of understanding that we could not accomplish on our own. And what is more, this united quest for cognition helps us to get to know each other.

 Our present study is Peter Selg’s The Future of Ahriman and the Awakening of Souls, which will be followed by Peter Selg’s The Culture of Selflessness. The study of these two books will be followed by Rudolf Steiner’s lecture cycle Materialism and the Task of Anthroposophy (Vol. 204), given in Dornach, between April 2 and June 5, 1921.

Since 2003, members of the General Anthroposophical Section of the School of Spiritual Science, living in Kelowna and Nelson, meet in Kelowna (on 9 weekends per year) to attend Lessons of the First Class of the School of Spiritual Science and to participate in Class conversations.

Why Do You Become A Member?

  • "I met Anthroposophy 42 years ago in Kelowna, B.C. It was as though a door opened and brilliant light flooded around me. I soon recognized that Rudolf Steiner was my teacher and that Anthroposophy would be my guide and path through life."

    Edna Cox, Port Alberni, BC

  • "I felt starved at university, and the Society activities provided much-needed nourishment."

    Mark McAlister Thornhill, ON

  • "It’s right for me to help keep anthroposophy alive!"

    Suzanne Routhier, PQ

  • "I became a member as a free gesture to uphold and support the spiritual work of Anthroposophy. I was an eurythmy student in England, and felt inspired by the older generation, John Davy, who had just passed away and Eileen Hutchins and others and wanted to be part of this community too!"

    Margaret Osmond, NS

  • "I joined the Anthroposophical Society, first in the UK , when I was a student at Emerson College. It seemed to me then in 1967, and has done ever since, that this deed is both a modest gesture of support for the significant work at the Goetheanum and the least one can do to honour the karmic privilege of having anthroposophy in one's life."

    Diana Hughes Richmond Hill, ON

  • "I wished to express my gratitude to those who brought this wonderful gift to my attention."

    David Charles Adams Cowichan Bay, BC

  • "I became a member to support the work of Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy in the world."

    Barbarah Nicoll, Glade, BC

  • "Since I was born into an anthroposophical environment I've always been familiar with the most important aspects of it. But I only joined the Society after anthroposophy started to make sense. My wife, who came to anthroposophy through me, was also keen that we should join the Society."

    Chris Wilson, Woodstock, ON

  • "I always had an inner feeling that there was another world we have come from."

    Hans-J.Rosch Lucan, ON

  • "I was already committed to anthroposophy. I wanted to support work being done."

    Judy King, Baddeck, NS

  • "While a student at Emerson College, Foundation Year in the 1970s. I decided to apply for membership in the Society. Adam Bittleston was my study group leader and he encouraged me to do so. I have valued being a Canadian member of the society since then."

    Henriette van Hees from Edmonton, AB

  • "When I joined I was living in an anthroposophically remote area of Canada and was looking to keep my anthroposophical connection alive. I was also ready to make a commitment to the Society and anthroposophy."

    Kate Reynolds, Gabriola Island, BC

  • "I was encouraged by Paul Décarie after a year of participation in the study group."

    Roger Laplante, Montreal, PQ

  • "I was inspired by Rudolf Steiner's philosophy and the various initiatives that have a foundation in anthroposophy (TWS, Arscura School for Living Art, Hesperus Village, etc)."

    Vibeke Ball, Richmond Hill, ON

  • "I wanted to be part of, and support, an organization that is spreading the spiritual truths so desperately needed in our society."

    Gregory W Moore Edmonton, Alberta, AB

  • "I wanted to find a home for my belief in reincarnation."

    Reinhard Rosch, Ottawa, ON

  • "To contribute to anthroposophic impulses."

    CoCo Verspoor, Richmond Hill, ON

  • "To follow and be cued in, as to what’s happening within the Canadian anthroposophical movement. To support (financially) the Canadian scene and also worldwide."

    John Vanden Heuvel, Victoria, BC

  • "I began studying Steiner a few years ago. I did the first part of the Anthroposophy course with Hamo, and I made a trip to the Goetheanum. It then came to me that I wanted/needed to make a more formal commitment to the organization."

    Alexandra MacKinnon, Ottawa, ON

  • "For the moral support of being identified and included in the anthroposophical community."

    MaryAnne Causyn, Ottawa, ON