| Category | ADF | OBOD |
| Training: | All training free with $25 annual membership
regardless of nationality. (Certain Guilds may charge a fee for training to
cover mailing costs, but none exceed $15.) | Charges
$435 for US students (current exchange rate for £215.00) for 1 year of training. |
| Training Programs Available: | Dedicant Path (1 year to complete), Initiate Program (1 year to complete), Clergy Training Program (3 years to complete), Generalist Study Program (1 year to complete), various Guild Study Programs (between 3 and 5 years to complete). Students are given numerous options depending on their focus/wants/needs. | Three Grades of training: Bard, Ovate, and Druid.
Grades must be done in order, training programs beyond this progression are
not advertised. |
| Training completion rate: | Just over 8% of all current ADF members
have finished the Dedicant Program. | 33% of OBOD members have finished the Bardic Grade. |
| Size*: | 1200 active members. | 8,000 members since
1988. |
| * - Size is measured differently in ADF and in OBOD. ADF requires annual renewals, and OBOD members are never taken off the rolls. ADF has had over 5,100 individual members since moving over to an electronic database. |
| Head: | Archdruid elected by entire membership every three years. | Chosen Chief appointed for life by a small body. |
| Local structure: | about 55% of members are solitary, and 60 Groves and Protogroves throughout the United States, Canada, and the UK serve the other members. Groves are required to have a focus on public ritual and community service. | 80% of members are solitary, and there are about 60 Groves and Seed-Groups throughout Europe, North America, Australia, and other countries. |
| Festivals: | Around eight festivals per year (recent years have seen festivals outside the US) drawing
between 30 and 150 members per festival (including the ADF Archdruid and Mother Grove members) with a strong presence at around 4 festivals per year that draw between 300 and 1,000 people. Several local Groves also hold smaller festivals that draw on the Pagan community. | Four
Druid Camps per year, in the UK. Druid Camps outside the UK are not official
OBOD events, but about 6 may occur in any given year outside the UK. Seed
groups and groves may also hold smaller local events. |
| Publications: | Oak Leaves, a quarterly journal of about 44
pages per issue. Available for $20 to ADF members and $25 to non-members | Touchstone,
published 11 times per year and about 16 pages per issue. Available only
to members of OBOD, but a one year subscription is included in the cost of
joining. After the first year the cost is, £25.00 ($45) per year. |
| Views on Druidry: | Druidry is a religion and the term is used to describe a class of Indo-European priesthood. | Druidry is a way of life applicable to any religion. Christian Druids, Atheist Druids, and Celtic Druids are all part of OBOD. |
| Views on research: | Focus on scholarship, but encourages and supports Unsubstanitated Personal Gnosis (UPG) so long as it isn't presented as scholarly fact. | Focuses on the cultivation of UPG, but encourages scholarship. |
| Method of becoming clergy: | Completion of the initial training program (Dedicant Path, about 1 year) and completion of the First Circle of the Clergy Training Program (about 1 year) for consecration as a Dedicant Priest (lay clergy); completion of third circle of the Clergy Training Program (about two further years) for full ordination as an ADF Priest. | Completion of the Bard, Ovate, and Druid Grades (about three to four years) for any ordination. |
