Soap over JMS is a very good idea, I think. But there need to be some work done on the productivity and connectivity, to be really useful. I would not dare to say that there is no future for Soap over JMS. But I think in most cases I would need the reliability over a very long distance... If you do indeed have the same requirement (reliable messaging over a long distance) I would suggest you take a look into the ebXML/ebMS standards. Oracle Integration B2B for example could help you with that.
Archive - Jun 2008
HL7 Version 3 Standard: Transport Specification - ebXML, Release 2
The purpose of the ebXML message wrapper is to provide a secure, flexible transport for exchanging HL7 messages and other content, and potentially other message formats, between message handling interfaces or ebXML Message Service Handlers (ebXML MSH). This document describes a specific implementation of the ebXML Message Service Standard as described in "Oasis ebXML Messaging Services Version 3.0: Part 1, Core Features, Committee Specification 02, 12 July 2007" (ebXML Specification).
The Global Justice Reference Architecture (JRA) ebXML Messaging Service Interaction Profile Version 1.0
The purpose of this document is to establish a SERVICE INTERACTION PROFILE (SIP) based on the ebXML family of technology standards.
Developing Java Web Services: Architecting and Developing Secure Web Services Using Java
This hands-on developer's guide to Web services prepares you for the next level of distributed computing. The authors clearly show how to implement and deploy Web services using Java while also explaining the fundamentals from the ground up. After providing a detailed introduction to Web services, they walk you through the Web services architecture and its core building blocks, including standards and technologies.