This page applies to adult members of the Orchestra, Choir, and Production teams, and to youth program members aged 18 or over. For the parent guide to youth commitment (members under 18), see What Your Child Is Committing To. For the Youth Attendance Policy, see Youth Attendance Policy.
The principle
One absence is not just your absence. It changes the sound, the morale, and the readiness of everyone around you. So the standard is full commitment, freely chosen, and held to the end of the season.
This is a high bar on purpose. It is part of reclaiming the arts for Christ: excellence offered as worship asks something real of us.
Your name. Your face. Your place.
When you join, a photo is taken of you and added to the AChA website. Your name and your face are matched to a chair or a voice part in the ensemble.
This is not the kind of involvement you drift in and out of quietly. Your place is real, it is named, and it is yours to honour. This is not a lightweight commitment of the kind you might find in a church service or a casual community group. It is a vocational yes.
What you are committing to
When you join, you are saying yes to two things:
- Yes to every rehearsal.* When the call goes out, you reply yes and you come.
- Yes to the concert.** When the call goes out, you reply yes and you perform.
That is the commitment in full. Everything below is the honest answer to the questions people ask once they understand what that yes means.
* If you genuinely cannot make a rehearsal, let AChA know beforehand using the Member Absence Form. Communicating an absence is required — missing without notice triggers a membership pause after 10 days. Only rehearsals announced at least 3 months in advance count toward your attendance percentage.
** If you cannot make the upcoming concert or need a longer break, there are three formal options: a Membership Hold (you know you cannot perform in the next concert — the 70% rule is paused for the season and your place is kept), a Membership Freeze (exceptional circumstances — you may still be permitted to perform even if attendance has dipped below 70%), or a Cancellation (you can no longer commit at all). None of these options is available informally — use the Member Absence, Hold, Freeze & Cancellation Form to request any of them.
The honest questions and answers
These are the real questions members ask, with the real answers. They are firm by design.
The two “yes” answers about the concert being affected are deliberate. We do not protect a member from the consequence of leaving by quietly replacing them. The commitment is real because the cost of breaking it is real.
† About “spiritually uncomfortable”: AChA is an ecumenical community. You will sing and play alongside people from Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, Baptist, Pentecostal, and other traditions, and you will encounter music, prayer, and scripture that may sit differently with your own background. Involvement is not agreement. You are not required to adopt anyone else’s theology, and your personality is not your denomination. The discomfort, when it comes, is the normal friction of genuine community across difference — not a problem to be avoided but a grace to be received. See Involvement & Agreement, Personality & Denomination, and Faith & Music in our training library for more.
The non-negotiables
These are hard rules. They are not case-by-case.
Leaving and returning
If you leave a season, you cannot simply come back later as a guest. Return is only possible through a formal hold, freeze, or cancellation handled the proper way. An informal walk-out is not a pause, and it does not leave the door open.
Onboarding
You cannot keep attending if you have not completed your onboarding. Onboarding is the doorway, not an optional extra. There are no refunds for time attended before onboarding is completed.
Attendance threshold
If your attendance drops below 70 per cent, you will not be permitted to perform in the concert. The concert is earned through presence in the room. Below the threshold, you are not concert-ready and you will not be on stage.
If you need to step back
Life happens. If something serious arises that makes continuing difficult, the right path is a formal hold, freeze, or cancellation — not a quiet disappearance. The commitment is high precisely because AChA takes your situation seriously enough to have a proper process for it.
Submit an Absence, Hold, Freeze or Cancellation Request
See the Membership Terms and Conditions for the full detail of holds, freezes, and cancellations.
Related policies
- Member Attendance Policy — the formal Part A/B policy that underpins the 70% threshold.
- Member Attendance Rules — how attendance is tracked and what the 70% rule means in practice.
- Member Code of Conduct — the behavioural standards every member agrees to.
- Membership Terms and Conditions — holds, freezes, cancellations, and refund policy.
- What Your Child Is Committing To — the parent guide for youth members under 18.