> 	<xsl:value-of select="ancestor(Element[@attribute])"/>

that is a very old draft dialect of XSL you are using

> 
> 	This is normal?  Should I look for a new parser?
> 
No, you should start using XSLT 1.0 syntax, which is

ancestor::Element[@attribute]

Mike Kay

 XSL-List info and archive:  http://www.mulberrytech.com/xsl/xsl-list