When there isn’t much to distract you, everything can be a distraction – the sound of cars going by on Route 6, a cough, the rustle of feet, the creak of a pew. Learning to be silent and listen takes time and discipline, say the members and “attenders” of the Mattapoisett Meeting House.

On Sunday, the group welcomed guests to an abbreviated service followed by a history of the Quakers, with a focus on the local church. The special service was part of a week of activities focused on engaging with the community and fundraising for repairs needed to restore the historic meeting house.

Rheannan Williams read a history written by long-time member Brad Hathaway. According to Hathaway, the persecution of Quakers in Boston lead to their arrival in Rochester, then encompassing Marion, Mattapoisett and parts of Wareham, around 1680.

The Quakers’ values bucked religious, cultural and governmental customs.

“They were against slavery. They refused to take up arms, refused to swear oaths, refused to remove their hats as a mark of respect, refused to pay taxes to support ‘hireling priests,’” wrote Hathaway. “Their beliefs were perplexing to their more traditional neighbors.”

Yet Rochester generally accepted the Quakers, some of whom came to hold town offices.

There were some conflicts, however. Hathaway’s history says two Quakers, Nehemiah Shearman and Nicholas Davis, refused to train with the militia in town. As a result, the government took two cows and two oxen from Shearman and an ox and money from Davis.

The Friends did generally live in peace, and familiar names like Barlow, Hiller, Mendall and Randall were amongst the Quaker families in the area.

In 1719, the first Old Rochester meeting house in Marion began holding services, maintaining 30 to 40 families. In 1827, the Mattapoisett Meeting House opened as the Mattapoisett Particular Meeting. For a time, it was one of the few pastored Friends meetings in Massachusetts though now it has returned to the more traditional format with no pastor.

Seated in pews that form a square all facing towards the center, the Friends are silent unless someone feels moved to speak.

“It’s kind of a mystery how we sit here and what comes up. It’s important to pay attention to a leading or whether that’s something you feel you should say. You have to discern. That takes a bit of time,” said Johanna Duponte-Williams.

Her granddaughter, Ava Duponte, was one of several children at the meeting on Sunday. She and the other kids were quiet for the entire service, no small task for kids or adults.

“Sometimes for some people it’s really difficult to just sit,” said Duponte-Williams, a member for four years.

For Duponte-Williams, the church offers a freedom she didn’t find in the “strict religious background” from which she grew up. The people and their sincerity kept her returning to the meetings.

“As I learned more and more about the history of equality and nonviolence and caretaking, this group, the friends, they really walk the walk. It’s a wonderful accepting place,” she said.

Williams has been a part of Quaker churches for 45 years, but said, “This one has my heart.”

And she is confident that the church, which has around 16 regular attendees, will be able to raise the $165,000 it still needs for repairs to the building. They have already collected $80,000 for the first phase, set to begin soon.

“It’s already there. We just have to walk toward it,” she said.