 Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, very warm welcome to you all to members of the Zoroastrian communities, to scholars, to students, to friends. My name is Almut Hinze, I'm Satoshi's brother's professor of Zoroastrianism here at SOAS and it's my great privilege and honor to welcome you all tonight here. When we are celebrating the memory of Professor John Hinze. The department for the study of religions as today's department of religions and philosophies was known at John Hinze's time, is one of the younger departments at SOAS, yet one with a distinctive and illustrious history. Its founding head of department was the man whose memory we are celebrating tonight, Professor John Russell Hinze. He joined SOAS in 1993 to take up the chair of comparative religion and serve as head of the newly established study of religions department. Before talking a little about John Hinze's work, let me briefly say a few words about his life. John Hinze was born on the 27th of August 1941 in Derby, the only child of Lillian and William Hinze. He spent much of his childhood from the age of 16 to 13 in hospital for treatment of tuberculosis, the after effects of which have been powerful and challenging throughout his life. He then went to a secondary school, took the 13 plus exam, passed and went to Spondent Park Grammar School from 1954 to 1957, although at one point he was thrown out for tripping up people who were cruel to him about his crutches. So he had a powerful weapon. Subsequently he attended Derby District College of Art from 1957 to 1959. Although he taught art for two years, he felt inclined to become a clergyman of the Church of England and he attended the preliminary theological training college for prospective priests at St Andrews Church in Graystroke near Penrith in Cumbria that was in 1959 to 1960. He then expressed the wish to enter the monastic life and he joined the Anglican community of the Resurrection based in Merfield Monastery near Leeds in West Yorkshire. However, there he met and fell in love with his future wife, Marian Gray Spusher, who had come to visit a cousin. As a result, his plans changed dramatically. Unable and unwilling to take monastic vows, he left monastery and in 1961 he went up to King's College London to study theology and religious studies and he graduated as a Bachelor of Divinity in 1964. Marian and he were married on the 24th of July 1965 and their two sons, Mark and Duncan, who are here with us tonight, they were born in 1966 and 1968 respectively and here you can see them a few years earlier than today. At King's College London, John was fortunate to study under the guidance of eminent teachers including the New Testament scholar Professor Mona Hooker and Professor Christopher Francis Evans, while among his inspiring peers and indeed his tutorial partner was Desmond Tutu, the South African Social Rights Activist and later Anglican Archbishop, preferring academia to the priesthood. John engaged in postgraduate research at King's College and at SOAS, where under the supervision of Professor Mary Boyce, he researched the Russian influence on the Judeo-Jewish and Christian traditions. John Hinnells went on to have a distinguished academic career starting at the age of 26 as a lecturer at the University of Newcastle. In 1970 he moved on to the University of Manchester where he remained for 23 years rising to Professor of Comparative Religion in 1985. In 1993 he took up the chair of Comparative Religion at SOAS, University of London and became founding head of this new department for the study of religions. However, he left SOAS in 1997 after the painful loss of his beloved wife Marianne who had certainly died prematurely from cancer in 1996. After a year as visiting fellow at Clare Hall in Cambridge, John returned to the city of his birth and became research professor of Comparative Religion at Derby University and then he became professor of Comparative Religion at Liverpool Hope University in 2002 until his retirement. While holding his appointments at Derby and Liverpool Hope, John made Cambridge his home and became a senior member at Robinson College where he met again his former tutor of King's College Professor Mona Hooker. He enjoyed the congenial company at Robinson College as well as at Clare Hall and that of his friend Mrs Alison Houghton founding librarian of Robinson College. In 2013 John decided to sell his bungalow in Histon and moved closer to his son Mark in Oxford where he lived for the rest of his life in a bungalow set on in beautiful grounds. The move to Oxford enabled John to be closer to his two sons and their families especially his four grandchildren Eleanor and Teo and Emma and Oliver. The title of the chair which John held held at four universities in Manchester London and Liverpool, two universities Liverpool at Liverpool describes the white remit of his scholarly work. He was one of the protagonists for the non-confessional study of religions. Note the S at the end of the word religions. At the time religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam and Zoroastrianism tended to be the remit of regional departments such as South Asia and the near Middle East while Judaism and Christianity were not entirely excluded from the regional departments where predominantly studied and taught in theology and divinity departments. Such a separation of the latter two from the other religions has of course good historical reasons but Hindus promoted an approach that studies Judaism and Christianity alongside other religions. But John Hinnell's approach to education in religions was by no means confined to academia and this is why the title of this talk is the study of religions at so at so us and beyond and not as someone who was passing by here was suggesting the jobs which you can get after you have studied Zoroastrian religions. John Hinnell strove to influence the way religions are taught at schools as well as at university. If it all happened today his work would make a great impact case for our government's research excellent framework. In order to promote the work of comparative religion John set up the sharp working party on education in world religions. One of his very first publications entitled comparative religion in education from 1970 is a collection of eight papers which John edited and this work has a forward forward by Edward Short then secretary of state for education and deputy labor leader. The secretary of state emphasizes the importance of teaching a range of different religions at school and accept and promote diversity. This was a significant endorsement of the sharp perspective and it laid the basis for a profound move to a much more diverse style of teaching of religion in both schools and in higher education. One of John's colleagues at the sharp working party Peter Woodward who sadly can't speak here in person tonight sent me the following tribute where I to have just two words to portray how I see John they would be activator and humility activator in the sense that whatever he set out to achieve he first planned with care and then ensured it took place humility in the way he liaised with others to bring about what he could never have achieved just on his own. Let me give me you just three examples first the sharp working party on world religions in education was chiefly the result of John's foresight and planning. Admittedly four others shared in the organization of the first sharp conference held in April 1969 Alistair Mackenzie, Donald Butler, Owen Cole and Gordon Smith gathered with John at Leeds in 1968 to help him plan it. But it was John's links with Jeff Whatmore, tutor in extramural studies at the University of Newcastle, Pontein where John lectured that led to the shopwells hotel in the Lake District becoming the focus for this innovative gathering of some 40 folk from around the country. Jeff often used this venue for other conferences but it was John's influence that led to its being used for this one on comparative religion in education. The team of speakers John gathered led by Professor Ninian Smart by Frank Hilliard and Jeffrey Perinder shared scholarly but very down-to-earth ethos that has been typical of the working party for nearly 50 years. So John became the instigator and first secretary of the working party that had flourished and influenced developments in religious studies in the UK for 50 years. The second example is jump on four or five years to visit, to a visit paid by the gang of four sharp officers to Northern Ireland to persuade the senior directors of the new University of Ulster that they needed to create a post of a lecturer in religious education. They were successful and Dr. John Greer eventually took up the post. The weight of the voices of the universities of Lancaster and Manchester spread beyond the boundaries of the English coastland largely due to the creative insight of our two like-minded innovators Ninian Smart and John Hinnells. Completely typical of the sort of planning that John envisaged and brought to fruition sometimes on his own but equally open in cooperation with like-minded colleagues. And the third example which Peter Woodward adduces is a visit which John paid to Birmingham to pick the brains of those who created the first genuinely multi-phase RE syllables for state schools in the country. He had been asked to produce a penguin dictionary of religions published in 1984 as a guide to students and teachers who were eager to popularize the type of open RE John and others were promulgating. His willingness to seek advice from workers in the school field and to garner experience wherever he could these were symptoms of the humility that made him so welcome and popular in every creative endeavor he undertook. Much more could be said about the character of this amazing scholar, his attention to detail, his humor, his cheerfulness, his resilience but for John Woodward it was his gentle humility and the quietly purposeful way he achieved what he set out to do that appealed above all. So much the message of Peter Woodward. John retained a keen interest in the work of the SHAP Working Party right to the end of his life. It is almost iconic that Peter Woodward spoke to John on the phone just a day before John's passing on the 3rd of May 2018. Peter tells us that John was his usual bright and cheerful self though sad and by the fact that his beloved football team Manchester United were now only the second best team in the country and by the news that the SHAP Working Party was probably going to close but not before celebrating its jubilee in 2019. John's heart and soul were then as ever passionately dedicated to the organization in whose founding he was so deeply involved. The widening of the approach which John Hinnells advocated for the study of religions did not only concern the religion studied but also methodologies and topics covered. Taking a thematic approach for comparative religion by studying themes such as religion and health, religion and art, charitable giving and interface relationships. The important topic of religious violence was the focus of his collaborative work with Richard King on religion and violence in South Asia. With regard to methodology in the study of religions, John Hinnells contributed to establishing appropriate research methodology through the Routledge companion in the study of religions which he edited. This work influenced methodology in the study of migration and human biography as well as in religion. John was deeply devoted to work for the popularization of the study of religions as exemplified by a range of books which he edited especially for Penguin including the Penguin Dictionary and the Handbook of Living Religion, the Handbook of Ancient Religion, the Who Is Who of World Religions and his richly illustrated Persian mythology. He was in fact a champion of religious equality, tackling prejudice wherever he founded, not only in religion and race, campaigning for example for women priests but also in his work with the NHS and the police. His advice was also widely sought when institutions especially universities and charities such as the Ancient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge improved disabled access. In addition to championing the study of comparative religion in the widest possible sense, John's second major academic field was the study of the nowadays tiny community of the Zoroastrians. Here John undertook a journey from ancient to modern and contemporary. He started off with work on the question of the historical links between Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians and then moved into the study of Mithraism. Between 1971 and 1978 he organized three major congresses on Mithraism in Manchester, Tehran and Rome and edited the Proceedings of Two. The first international congress of Mithraic studies which was generously supported by the Imperial Pahlavi Library of Tehran was the first of its kind and marked the beginning of a new epoch in the study of the cult. Hinels brought together an impressive range of scholars from around the globe working in a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences including theology and religious studies. Latin, Greek and Iranian philology, archaeology, epigraphy and papyrology. Participants included Sir Harold Walter Bailey for whom John Hinels has always had great admiration and also great affection. He published the Proceedings in two volumes in 1975 with Manchester University Press. John Hinels' early work on Mithraism and his work on ancient Zoroastrianism helped set the base for analysis of how one religion influences another. John Hinels' work on the Parsi community is entirely groundbreaking. Here too his approach was truly global even in the literal sense. He traveled the world 250,000 miles and developed methodology up to then unprecedented in Zoroastrian studies to solicit information from members of this global community in the form of questionnaires. The Katra lectures of 1985 on Zoroastrians in Britain were a decisive moment in his career in terms of his external profile and internal confidence in himself and this monograph was complemented by his monumental Zoroastrian diaspora Religion and Migration published in 2005. In this book John Hinels tells us that Cyrus P. Mehta was the first Zoroastrian he met and that Cyrus immediately inspired in him his love for the living community. London is the home of the oldest Zoroastrian community in the western world and has one of the largest Zoroastrian population outside of India and Iran. Hinels' ties with the community were acknowledged by the Zoroastrian trust funds of Europe, ZTFE who bestowed on him the title are not friend of the ZTFE on 20th of May 2007 and Ruzi Dalal will talk a little more about John's relationship to the Parsi community in a moment. John has always made a point of cultivating good relationships with all parts of the community. Sharpoor captain the past president of the world's Zoroastrian organization also located here in London who sadly cannot be with us tonight sent me this memory. I had a close relationship with John when I was the president of ZTFE and opened all our files to him and tried to find whatever information he needed for his studies of the Parsi's. I used to visit him at his home and we spent the time discussing my work for the world's Zoroastrian organization and my work with the trustees of the Bombay Parsi Ponshired in India and we received a message from Kogyasti mystery from Mumbai addressed to John's sons and here Kogyasti writes my wife Feroza and our daughter Sharna's and I were deeply grieved on hearing of the passing away of your dear father John who was an old friend of ours. We met John in the 1980s in the residence of Adi Chinnoy with whom he was staying during his sojourn in Mumbai. He was working on his first book on the Parsi's entitled Zoroastrianism and the Parsi's and he very generously gave our institute Zoroastrian studies the right to publication in India. This book continues to be one of the best selling books owing to its clear articulation of the faith and history of its people which has made it popular overall for all ages. Over the years our friendship grew and we spent many valuable hours together discussing Zoroastrian theology contemporary Parsi issues and the future of the community. He wrote with great fondness about the Parsi's and his work filled a huge void in Parsi studies making it relevant and germane to current issues and through it academically raising the profile of our small community internationally. He worked with the Parsi community all over the world collecting information and collating facts for his books. He was a great friend of High Priest Dastur Khaikushro Jamasasa with whom he worked on several projects. Dastur Jamasasa translated large amounts of Gujarati into English to enable John to further his research. It was John Hinders eternal disappointment that he couldn't go back to Iran after the fall of the Shah and study Zoroastrianism in Iran as well as in India and the diasporas. This topic has now been taken forward by my colleague Dr. Sara Stewart who has worked with Zoroastrians in Iran over the past 10 years or so and whose forthcoming book on Zoroastrian voices of Iran will be launched here at SOAS on the 14th of November. The work of John Hinders is as profoundly important now as it was in the 1970s and he seems to have been a long way ahead of his time in anticipating how crucial it is for today's world to understand religion, migrating, migration and interfaith relations. John Hinders' research interests spanned ancient and modern and he moved on that journey throughout his Swiss career holding the academic posts I mentioned at Newcastle, Manchester, SOAS and Liverpool with a wonderful late period in Cambridge and then finally Oxford where even in his last years he was senior fellow of the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies from 2015. Throughout his career he supported many younger academic colleagues and departments in creating opportunities and helping build careers. He has always put people first and at work the care for his student was his top priority. Colleagues and friends celebrated his work with a festrift in his honour presented to him on the 11th of March 2017 at the ancient India and Iran Trust in Cambridge, an institution to which he bequeathed his collection of books. The words which John Hinders said there were and he never ever spoke ill of anyone and he was talking there of Sir Harold Bailey. John Hinders' work has also left a legacy at SOAS in the form of the Satoshi brothers chair of Zoroastrianism towards whose endowment he worked together with the late Professor Mary Boyce. It was a testimony of the high regard with which the Zoroastrian community held for his scholarly work that the TfE benefactor and patron Moved Mehraban Satoshi immediately agreed within minutes of a meeting at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai in December 1996 to donate the seed capital to restart Zoroastrian studies at SOAS with a view to establishing the world's first in doubt chair in Zoroastrianism. The Satoshi brothers professorship in Zoroastrianism which is now in doubt with almost three million pounds of which a substantial part comes from the late Professor Mary Boyce who bequeathed her entire estate to top up the endowment of this post. It has now fallen on Sarah Stuart and myself to carry on this great legacy. We have been privileged to mount the exhibition The Everlasting Flame which was masterminded by Sarah Stuart in the Brunei gallery in 2013 and the next pictures may bring up memories to quite a few of us I think. This year was the Yasna ritual precinct with all the implements and everything which was brought over from Mumbai and with the full funding from the government of India this exhibition went then to New Delhi to be there on show in the National Museum in 2016 and here you can see a street advert of our exhibition there in Delhi The Everlasting Flame. Here you can see the opening event which was attended by many hundreds of people and it included illustrious persons such as Ratan Tata and Ratia Nadia Godrej and Feruza Godrej and also Kojasti Mistry and many others and of course also Koshita Stur the chief priest of the Zoroastrian community from Udvada. Here is the audience a few more pictures of the audience here and here you can see Lord Karan Billimoria lighting the flame together with our director Valerie Amos with the Iranians Iran's minister looking on and here the two queens of the exhibition with Kojasti Mistry but not only that a dream became true when Sharpoor Mystery after visiting the Everlasting Flame exhibition at SOAS decided to donate five million pounds to SOAS to establish the Sharpoorji Palangi Institute of Zoroastrian Studies and this institute was inaugurated this year on the 27th of June. Sharpoorji Palangi's business logo built to last now also applies to Zoroastrianism at SOAS. With a total endowment of almost eight million pounds we are hoping that the study of Zoroastrianism at SOAS is now firmly cemented and secured in perpetuity. John Hinnels was aware that this was happening and he delighted in the thought of this great development. The old his old department now houses the institute in three beautiful rooms which were refurbished especially for the institute they are located on the third floor of the main building and please do go and visit the institute when you can and also have a look at the exhibition case in the institute's administrator's office Clive Bream which shows some beautiful Zoroastrian items. The remit of the institute is threefold research teaching and outreach. The donation provides the endowment of the Sharpoorji Palangi Lectureship in Zoroastrianism held by Dr. Sara Stewart. This post complements the already existing in doubt Satoshi brother's chair in Zoroastrianism. With two in doubt posts in Zoroastrianism SOAS is now able to cover a wide range of subjects and methodologies including oral studies and minority studies as well as Zoroastrian religion and Iranian philology and linguistics. A large part of the donation in doubts postgraduate scholarships thus enabling students from around the globe to come and study Zoroastrianism at SOAS and I'm delighted that so many of our students are here tonight. Outreach activities include partnerships with other institutions and organizations, lectures and other public events and digital resources will be made available in the Sharpoorji Palangi Digital Archive. And the two first beneficiaries of the Sharpoorji Palangi scholarships are actually here tonight with us and I would like you to stand up. This is Mariano Ericiello. He is doing a PhD on the schnumists here at SOAS and he is supported by a Sharpoorji Palangi scholarship and Chiara Graci who is doing an MA in Zoroastrianism. We are very proud of our close collaboration and good relationships with Zoroastrian, with all Zoroastrian institutions and this is very very important for us. Thus through the world's Zoroastrian organization the annual Kutah Memorial lecture has been, was in doubt. The Zoroastrian Trust Funds of Europe administer scholarships endowment fund of the Satoshi brothers to enable Zoroastrian students to study their religion here at SOAS and here there you can see that the summer of 2018 was a bumper year for us with two MA students, Ervat Yazabhada and Mr. Ruzbed Haudhuala and one PhD student, Mehbud Karnizadeh, took their degrees and this was reported in the Zoroastrian newspapers such as the Jame Jamshid in Mumbai and Zoroastrian Trust Funds here in London held a special ceremony to felicitate our three students who were supported by the Satoshi funds. The current research of Dr. Stewart and myself is being showcased in the exhibition Living Zoroastrianism which we are going to open this evening. The multimedia Yasna or Muya project which is led by myself and funded by the European Research Council is designed to preserve the Yasna ritual by filming and recording a full-length performance. This was done at the only remaining Zoroastrian Priestley School in Mumbai in 2017 by our film team Anna and Remy Sova of Shwet Films with the priests Adil Bhezania and Aspaniyar Jidadachandri. We made two films, one two-dimensional in two-dimensional format and one in 360 degree virtual reality using a spherical camera while and you can have a taste have a look at this and try it out being transported into the ritual. While the VR film takes the viewer into a virtual reality experience by full immersion the two-dimensional film is going to be a multimedia experience. The viewer can read the Avestan words which the priests recite as subtitles along with their English translation while watching the film in slow movement. When clicking on a ritual implement the viewer finds an explanation of the implement and of its function and significance. We also approach the Yasna through the manuscripts. In collaboration with our project partners in Birmingham, Tuya and Munster we are developing a suite of digital tools to transcribe, collate and evaluate manuscripts for producing a multi-volume printed edition of Avestan texts of the Yasna with the translation commentary and dictionary. Muya's aim is to unlock the meaning and the function of this millennia old Zoroastrian ritual to contribute to its preservation and to enhance its understanding among scholars the Zoroastrian community and the general republic. The other project on show Dr. Stewart's audio installation draws on her project Voices from Zoroastrian Iran which maps the remaining Zoroastrian communities in Iran and looks at what has happened to their religious lives and social structures since the revolution of 1979 and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Funded by the British Academy and the British Institute of Persian Studies between 2007 and 2011 over 300 interviews were collected from Zoroastrians living in urban centers and in the villages surrounding the city of Yazd where an ever-diminishing number still live or own property. The first volume on the project will be launched here next month on the occasion of Professor Philip Crainbrooks lecture for the Institute and which I hope you will all come to attend. In this exhibition you can listen to a few samples of lay people's views on various subjects such as fire, shrines, the avesta and prayer. Thus Zoroastrianism has been going from strengths to strengths at SARS and we are doing our best to continue the legacy of John Hinnels by being activators in gentle humility, by working together as a team and by being truthful and committed to our sources while being open to new ideas. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. It's now my pleasure to invite Ruzi Dalal to say a few words about Professor Hinnels' relationship to the Parsi community before all of us then transfer to the Brunei Gallery for the opening of the exhibition. Thank you very much Almod for giving me the opportunity of addressing this August gathering. Professor Almod Hinsel, Dr. Sarah Stewart, Mark Hinnels and Duncan Hinnels, they're there, I know that one. The SOAS organizers distinguished lecturers and professors and of course the students that would be part of the distinguished gathering we have today. My wife and I came to know Professor Hinnels like most of you, first as an academic tutor and particularly in relation to his studies, research, writings on Zoroastrianism. Today I'll refer more to Professor Hinnels' bond with the Zoroastrian community than with Zoroastrianism. There will be some repeat of what Almod Hinsel has already mentioned but if I may be allowed to say a few things about Professor Hinnels. Being a Zoroastrian myself and having been to Iran several times, I was attracted by Professor Hinnels' title book titled The Persian Mythology which Almod mentioned, 1973, which I read with great interest. I compared my own notes that I complied during my visit to Iran and somehow had the urge to meet this great personality. John Hinnels then lived in Manchester where he was a professor of comparative religion at the university. Professor Hinnels already had made his impact on the Zoroastrians living in and around Manchester whom he encouraged to group into a formal body called the Northwest Zoroastrian community, an institution that still functions today. Professor Hinnels' connections with SOAS and the academic world who brought him to London quite often and that is when our families became friends and my wife, Roshan, and I began to know them as Marion and John and of course young Mark and Duncan. We vividly remember them all with us at our board in Ealing. It was Professor Hinnels' ongoing quest for research, learning and writing that led him to the publication of his book, The Zoroastrian Diaspora, these books that Almod did mention, 1985. He had discussed with me our way of life and experience in Zanzibar where I was born. The gist of it has been illustrated in his book. He had sent me his script to read and verify some of the facts with instructions of what I could not do more than what I could do and this was a sense of his meticulous being a meticulous author. He just wanted to have his say which he did. Later on, Professor Hinnels encouraged by the ZTF, the Zoroastrian Trusts of Europe, our communal institution in London to circulate a questionnaire to members for their attitude to social, cultural, and religious lives, the response of which culminated in the publication of his book titled The Zoroastrians of Britain, 1996. Professor Hinnels along with Professor Mary Boyce were acutely aware of the overall decline in the academic research and study of Zoroastrianism. At one of his lecture tours in India, Professor Hinnels met Maraban's orthoste at the Taj in Mumbai as Almud mentioned and briefed him of the dilemma facing the few scholars here of the lack of an institution anywhere that offered academic study of Zoroastrian religion. After a brief discussion, Maraban readily agreed to provide the initial funding. I remember Maraban calling me, requiring me to set up a dialogue with SOAS to implement his readiness for the funding of such a study of Zoroastrianism at SOAS. In 1997, this culminated in SOAS' declaration by the then director, Sir John, Sir Tim Lancaster, of the commitment to re-establish the lectureship in Zoroastrian studies. Mind you, I'm talking of re-establishment knowing that the study lectures at SOAS had begun way back in 1929. During my discussions, I asked Professor Hinnels a very simple question. How many students would you need to start these studies at SOAS? Professor Hinnels blunt answer came, give me one student and we shall build an institution around it. Such was his faith and commitment to the studies here. As it happened, there was no shortage of students registering from day one. Almut Hinsel was then appointed the very first lecturer, ably assisted by Dr. Sarah Stewart, and other guest lecturers. In 2012, a second wave of the anticipated funding from the legacy of Professor Mary Boyce and the hermetic bequest came along. Almut mentioned that one. But I'm aware that that was pre-connived with the knowledge of Professor Hinnels. Then came the greatest show on earth. Again, that was mentioned. The everlasting fame flame exhibition at SOAS on Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination 2013. At one stage, lack of adequate flow of funding put doubts on the staging was such an ambition exhibition. But thanks to the bold decision of the then director Paul Webley, who declared SOAS's commitment to go ahead with the exhibition anyway. This exhibition was so successful, thanks to Almut and Sarah again, that a repeat staging of the SOAS exhibition in New Delhi was announced with the support of the Indian government 2016. Having visited the everlasting flame exhibition in London, the, I must say, billionaire Zoroastrian Sapoji Palanji Mystery, whom you saw the picture, from Mumbai recently made a handsome bequest of the total of five million pounds for establishing the Institute of Zoroastrian Studies at SOAS. Of course, I'm repeating this one, but Almut had already mentioned this one. Professor Hinels also motivated a team of activists and helping hands that included successive directors of SOAS from Sir Tim Lancaster, Professor Colin Bundy, Professor Paul Webley, and our current director Baroness, Baroness Amos, who has now taken up the baton. I know that contributions in person, because I have been involved as well. They were helping hands from, of course, Almut and Sarah and from the SOAS staff, not forgetting late Professor Mary Boyce, the late Zarsusi brothers, Merawan and Faridun, and also my, I must mention, my successive presidents of these Zoroastrian trusts of Zoroastrian, Zoroastrian Mystery, Poros Jilla, and the current illustrious president. He has not been able to be here right now, Malcolm Debo. Why I'm saying all this, is that in 1990, when the studies of Zoroastrianism was almost dormant at SOAS and elsewhere, it was Professor Hinels who, with his foresight, enthusiasm, perseverance, instigated all of us into creating something unique by planting a seed of learning that has now germinated to a fully grown tree of Zoroastrian studies at SOAS. And therefore our gratitude must extend to all of those who has strived to make a success of what Professor Hinels has initiated over the last two decades. Let me turn to the human side of Professor Hinels. Professor Hinels was very much a family man. He regularly kept in touch, not only with his family, but his fellow friends and colleagues all over the United Kingdom and abroad, informing them of his family members' successes and well-being. After moving to Cambridge, he must be missing his pals and friends elsewhere, because when he was in Oxford, he wrote to me and I quote, it is nice to be near a mark and the families, otherwise Oxford is very lonely. Best wishes, John. 19 December 2013. I have outlined Professor Hinels' contributions towards the Zoroastrian community and Zoroastrianism is totally unsurpassed. His worldwide visits, lectures, regular write-ups in Zoroastrian journals, newsletters as far away as India, Pakistan, Iran, America, Hong Kong, Australia, has enlightened the Zoroastrian communities and the others as well worldwide. Thus he was one of those who have projected the Zoroastrians on the world map. His personal connections, cooperation and friendship with two of our current and most eminent high priests, I would mention that. Namely, Lasthu Jikai Khashogh, Jamas Asa and Lasthu Feroz Kotwal, they were both so as scholars. This speaks volumes of the extent of Professor John Hinels had influenced the Zoroastrian communities. We, the Zoroastrians of the United Kingdom, recognize his contributions worldwide and with our membership of our institution, the ZTFE readily resolving and bestowing the title of the Honored Friend of Zoroastrian Trusts of Europe upon Professor Hinels. This was in 2007. In conclusion, we have set upon a march along the road to success that was charted by Professor Hinels some two decades ago. With the passing away of Professor Hinels, we have not really lost him as his legacy still remains with us. This gathering and the exhibition that is to follow now is a befitting tribute to Professor John Hinels' achievements. Let us therefore pray that John Hinels' legacies continue to guide us along this righteous path of teaching, learning and that of service forever. I thank you. Thank you very much for your words. One can almost feel John Hinels being present here and I'm sure he would have thoroughly enjoyed all this boost for Zoroastrianism which we are allowed to celebrate today. And now I would like to invite you all to go to the Brunei Gallery to see our exhibition. There is going to be a formal opening. Professor Deborah Johnson is going to open the exhibition and our two priests, Yazad and Raymond Bahadhar, two brothers, they will recite some prayers and then the exhibition will be opened and there are going to be refreshments available for everybody to enjoy. Thank you.