Elgar's massive oratorio, The Kingdom, had a long and complex genesis. In 1903, Elgar began work on what had come to be known as the Apostles project in response to a commission from the Birmingham Festival. Inspired by the example of Wagner's Ring Cycle, Elgar's original conception of the Apostles project was a trilogy of three separate oratorios, linked by a central theme dealing with the history of the church. The first oratorio was to deal with the lives of the apostles, while the second would cover the early history of Christianity, the establishment of the early Christian Church. The third, and final oratorio of the trilogy was to present the story of the apocalypse and the last judgement.

The original intent had been to begin the project for the 1900 Birmingham Festival, however, due to illness, Elgar was forced to set aside the project in favor of The Dream of Gerontius. Circumstances were not much improved in 1903, when the realization of the enormity of the task of composing such a monumental trilogy caused Elgar to condense his original conception into one large-scale oratorio. The new conception of The Apostles was designed to highlight three contrasting episodes among the apostles and their followers. The first example was to be drawn from the life of Judas, the apostle who lacked faith. The second was to deal with a doubter converted, the obvious choice for which was Mary Magdalene. The final portion was to deal with an apostle whose faith remained consistently strong; Peter. It is this third section that eventually evolved into The Kingdom. The pressure of time before the Birmingham premier, compounded by a bout of sickness and the realization of the enormity of the planned composition, caused Elgar to make the decision not to include the Peter portion in The Apostles, but rather to compose it as a separate work to be composed at a later time.

The opportunity arose for Elgar to complete The Kingdom when, late in 1905 he received another commission for the Birmingham Festival. By this time, Elgar had returned to the idea of a trilogy of oratorios, with The Kingdom serving as the centerpiece. Sadly, this conception was never to become reality, as the final installment, provisionally titled The Last Judgement, was never completed. Working from the existing "Peter" sketches, and thus utilizing the same leitmotif scheme as The Apostles, the composition of The Kingdom occurred in two phases. From December of 1905 to March of 1906 Elgar completed scenes I to III of the vocal score. Elgar returned to the project in March, and by the end of July had also completed scenes IV and V. The finishing touches of the orchestration were put on the full score by 31 August 1906. The premier was given on 3 October at the Birmingham Festival with the composer conducting.

With his text drawn from the book of Acts, as well as from the Didache, an ancient prayer manual which had been discovered in 1873 in a monastery in Constantanople, Elgar crafted a work that portrays the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the activities of the early church, all the while using Peter as the main focus. Scored for soloists (playing the roles of The Blessed Virgin, Mary Magdalene, St. John and St. Peter), chorus and orchestra, and lasting approximately one hour and thirty-five minutes, the work is arranged in five scenes with a prelude that take the early Christians from the upper room to the beautiful gate, through Pentecost to the sign of healing, to come full circle and return to the upper room.

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