non-religious memorial "service"

[Mark Mandel]

Saturday evening I attended a gathering in memory of a friend. It was
described as a "service" in the announcement as well as in the emails,
although it had no religious components: the main event consisted of a
number of people reminiscing about him.

It could not have been more appropriate. But I do not remember previously
hearing the word "service" applied to any non-religious meeting.

Relevant definition from m-w.com:
  a meeting for worship -- often used in plural <held evening services>

... from OED Online:
  A celebration of public worship.

["There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met." (The Muppet
Movie)  Hi, Amy! :-)]

-- Mark A. Mandel
[This text prepared with Dragon NaturallySpeaking.]

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org