The Kingdom (Elgar) Jesus's disciples. It depicts the community of the early church, Pentecost, and the events of the next few days. Elgar had been planning a work depicting the Apostles as ordinary men, reacting to extraordinary events, for many years. His ideas outgrew the confines of a single work: parts of "The Kingdom" were written before "The Apostles", and later Elgar considered them as the first two parts of a trilogy. "The Kingdom" is, in effect, its slow movement. In the event, the projected third part was never written. "The Kingdom" is written for a large orchestra, of typical late Romantic proportions.
Dispersion of the Apostles Dispersion of the Apostles The Christian Gospel of Mark and Matthew says that, after the Ascension of Jesus, his Apostles "went out and preached everywhere". This is described in Mark 16 verses 19 and 20, and Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20. According to a tradition mentioned by Eusebius, they dispersed to distinct parts of the world. In the Middle Ages a liturgical feast of the Dispersion of the Apostles was celebrated to commemorate their missionary work and their founding the Apostolic Sees. This annual feast was held on 15 July and ranked as a major double. According to Book