Christening by Rev. Richard Lewis in Lake Cowichan, Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada

The christening table and the accessories for the baptism of first-born Stephan Alexander Scharnberg by Rev. Richard Lewis from Los Angeles, California, USA on Sunday, May 23, 1963 in the Scharnberg home, a converted logging bunkhouse on Neva Road in Lake Cowichan, Vancouver Island, B.C., Canada. Richard Lewis accompanied Dr. Lauenstein from West Germany on a North America-wide tour. After my christening, Richard Lewis continued north to Sproat Lake near Port Alberni, also on Vancouver Island, for the baptism of the first-born Krack child, Marius, and then to the Lower Mainland to baptize the second-born Rachel son, Andrew, at the Rachel’s new home on Cooper Road in Richmond.

Travel has always been an important part of my life. I’ve been on the road since before I was born. I was conceived on the return half of my parents’ honeymoon road trip to northern Mexico, on a US Army cot in the Waldorf School in Northridge, Los Angeles, California. At our first home, the bunkhouse, father planted me a birth tree, a Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), out front, still standing to this day at over 60 feet tall.

The baptisms are mentioned in the booklet, The Standing Wave (a biographical sketch of The Christian Community in British Columbia since the founding and further development) as remembered by Janet and Dean Rachel, published privately at Michaelmas 2005, with proceeds going to The Christian Community.

[1959 Kodak Retina IIIS (Type 027) rangefinder 35-mm roll film camera, s/n 86125, with Schneider-Kreuznach Retina-Xenon 50-mm f/1.9 Synchro Compur lens, s/n 6841319; Kodak Plus-X Pan ISO 125/22° 36-exposure black & white negative film]

© Copyright photograph by Uwe Kündrunar Scharnberg, May 1963 / Stephan Alexander Scharnberg, May 2012