Philippa Wilson's sculpture Grace, part of an exhibition in the First Church grounds commemorating the centenary of World War 1, is dwarfed by the spire.
Inset (from top) are Stephen Mulqueen's The Sniper's Prayer, Peter Nicholls' Grit, Morgan Jones' Dark Harvest and Bryn Jones' For Ever and Ever.
Ms Wilson said the tree she had sculpted out of steel was ''the tree of life''.
''It's really about love and how we can feel love,'' she said.
''Sometimes, we don't need words.''
Nonetheless, a poem is inscribed on the tree, written ''by a young woman who is now residing in Wellington''.
''[It's about] how love transcends culture, transcends gender, and also social, economic and political views.''
The work was ''a tribute to soldiers that have fallen; hearts scattered on the ground like fallen leaves and fallen soldiers, seeding love'', she said.
Mr Mulqueen said his sculpture was ''based on two converging reference points, the crosshairs of a sniper's telescopic sight and a simplified Celtic cross''.
He was inspired after being ''fascinated'' by the Celtic cross in Queens Gardens.
''When you're looking at the cross, you've got the cenotaph behind it,'' he said.
''I've just got a growing fascination with the idea of how ... when the dimensions are really reduced, it comes to look like the crosshairs of a gunsight.''
''It's that ironic play on terror and mortality.''
The exhibition will be in place until May 31.
