Last night I was at a talk given by a Jewish scholar, which was sponsored by the Church of Ireland Theological College and the Milltown Institute and partially funded by the Israeli Embassy.

The talk considered how the Dead Sea scrolls influenced both Judaism and Christianity.  

The Church of Ireland Theological College (http://www.citc.ie/) trains people for the Church of Ireland (Anglican, Episcopalian, Protestant) ministry, while the Milltown Institute was founded 40 years ago to teach philosophy and theology to Catholic seminarians (http://www.milltown-institute.ie/).

The lecture was inspiring and got huge applause.  It was interesting to note that in this week of the Church Unity Octave and when this week-end the Holocaust/Shoa will be commemorated that a lecture supported by Catholics, Protestants and Jewes could be held in which there wasa no disagreement mentioned.

Noel,

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I want to party with you!

In Christ,

There, now you have a couple of little Abe Lincolns from me...

Remember, the Sun is always shining!

"...the Qumran community influenced the teaching of Jesus:"

You got it, Michael.  Definitely an heretic idea if it came from a Christian.  Since it didn't, it's merely garden variety denial.

Peace

I recently ran across the same vain in a homily.  To say a community influenced the teachings of jesus is probably not really very accurate at best they may have provided a set constructs he used in teaching.  The homily I attended didn't make that claim , but drew more of a connection between that community and john the baptist , noting that they had ritual washing in Qumran and stating that John genius was re-interpreting that symble for the forgiveness of sin.