The baptism liturgy in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer addresses only godparents, not parents. More recent liturgies have taken into account that, in our culture, parents exercise greater responsibility for bringing up children in the Christian faith than godparents. Hence parents and godparents are addressed in the same way. This is problematic because Canon Law does not treat parents and godparents the same.
In Common Worship the Presentation of Candidates functions similarly to the section in the ASB titled "The Duties of Parents and Godparents." But while in the 1980s it may have been still possible to pretend that the parents in question are able and willing to fulfil these duties, the fact that nowadays a good many parents are not baptised themselves (and maybe only a minority confirmed) presents a serious obstacle.
In addition, if the 17th century saw greater "parent mortality" (alongside infant mortality) than the latter part of the 20th century, we have again entered a time when one of the parents may well be absent, more often as a result of the death of a relationship rather than bodily death.
Should we go back to the earlier practice? We might require three godparents but allow both parents to act as godparents, provided that they are baptised and confirmed. Parish priests should probably still be allowed to dispense with the requirement for confirmation but the reasons and conditions should be clearly articulated in each case. The widespread abuse of this permission, taking it as a license for never requiring confirmation, threatens the plausibility of confirmation as a rite within the Church of England.
At Ordinations the oath of allegiance, the oath of canonical obedience, and the declaration of assent are often made prior to the service. It may be worth exploring this option for baptism services. The practice would need careful preparation - we would want to minimise the risk of godparents turning up too late to make their declarations prior to the service - but there would be clear advantages.
If, within the liturgy, the parish priest confirms that the godparents have made their declarations rather than asks the questions, parents and godparents can present the candidate(s) without the awkwardness which often arises from not wanting to differentiate between Christian and non-Christian parents at this point. I suspect we usually leave it to the Hindu father or agnostic mother to decide whether they stand alongside godparents and, in response to the questions put by the priest in the Presentation of Candidate, mumble promises which they have no intention of keeping or keep shtumm, dissociating themselves from what is going on. Either way this does not help teaching the congregation the meaning of the event.
Another advantage is that the "swearing in" could use the most appropriate language without need to worry about whether it is readily understood by all present - godparents could be given a leaflet which explains their commitment prior to making the declarations.
