In the third arclent war, it's not said explicitely that Hester raised the wall all by herself. At the time I assumed it was the result of the Church's research into divine magic, a project on which multiple people worked, and Hester was just team leader. Especially since it looks like an improvement of an already existing Church technology, that is: the smaller walls used at Stineford and during the previous war. The main reason to doubt this was because Carina, a known mystic, said it "felt like Ivala". But even then, maybe divine magic just works that way at high level, or maybe someone in the military magics section of the Church sneaked it past Hester...
I still thought the cold light was Hester even before this update. Ardford got its demon problems, most Church leaders don't fit the role, in case of Church division the crystal supports the Ardford branch... and these are worldly events, so the Anak may have overlooked them because he was too busy chasing rabbits in the Tower.