> I'm not having much luck with saxon:parse() function.  I have 
> 6.5.3, 

The saxon:parse() extension was introduced much more recently than 6.5.3.

You'll find it in Saxon-B 9.1, and in Saxon-PE 9.2 or Saxon-EE 9.2.

Regards,

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay