The Kingdom (Elgar) The Kingdom (Elgar) The Kingdom, Op. 51, is an English-language oratorio composed in 1906 by Edward Elgar. It was first performed at the Birmingham Music Festival on 3 October 1906, with the orchestra conducted by the composer, and soloists Agnes Nicholls, Muriel Foster, John Coates and William Higley. The dedication is ""A. M. D. G."" Elgar wrote "The Kingdom" for choral and instrumental forces. Following "The Dream of Gerontius" and "The Apostles", the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival commissioned Elgar to produce another large oratorio for the 1906 festival. This was "The Kingdom", which continues the narrative of the lives of
Canons of the Apostles Canons of the Apostles The Apostolic Canons or Ecclesiastical Canons of the Same Holy Apostles is a 4th century Syrian Christian text. It is an Ancient Church Order, a collection of ancient ecclesiastical decrees concerning the government and discipline of the Early Christian Church, allegedly written by the Apostles first found as the last chapter of the eighth book of the "Apostolic Constitutions". Like the other Ancient Church Orders, the Apostolic Canons use a pseudepigraphic form. These eighty-five canons were approved by the Eastern Council in Trullo in 692 but rejected by Pope Sergius I. In the Western Church only